Leaf and Petal
by rrreeves
Summary: ItaSaku. Sakura returns from a long training journey and is given a new mission with Team 7. At the same time and in the same area, Itachi is in search of a medic - not for himself, but for Kisame.
1. Home

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, this is just a story written by me, a fan, for other fans.

ItaSaku pairing.

* * *

Home

* * *

Completely out of breath, yet more elated than she could ever remember having been, Sakura stopped in front of the gates of Konoha and looked ahead at the familiar sight. The town seemed to almost shine towards her, welcoming her with open arms and familiar sights. As she walked through the gates, a strange sensation of belonging filled her and she couldn't help but smile. She hadn't been in Konoha for almost two full years. How would the others react when they saw her? Several possible scenes ran through her mind, one quickly replaced by the next.

What would Ino say? The blonde's hair was probably twice as long as it had been two years ago, and her tongue sharper than ever. Maybe she and Shikamaru had become an item while she was away.

Then there was Naruto! Probably eaiting Ichiraku ramen every day as usual. Hopefully for the young Hokage-to-be (if he had his way), the journey with Jiraya had paid off in terms of strength.

_And Sasuke..._

Blushing as she walked, Sakura mused about how he might look now, two years after they parted. Things had almost gone wrong back then, so very wrong, until Naruto went to knock some sense into him. After that, Kakashi had brought him on a journey to go through hellish training, just as the Uchiha wanted. Almost drooling now, Sakura imagined the young clan heir taller, stronger, more weathered and wide-shouldered, and just generally smexxier. Turning giddy, she tried focusing on the road instead.

Autumn had brought along colored trees and falling leaves, both of which would cover almost every corner of the hidden village soon. But even though she was now a full-fledged ninja in terms of skills, Sakura only barely registered any of her surroundings. She was just too happy. Oh, how she was looking forward to show her teammates how much her strength had grown!

But for now, her destination was clear. She would first go to the Hokage.

* * *

Tsunade, the fifth Hokage, was currently extremely busy trying to decide whether to work or not. _Work or sake. _As things were, she had a choice between having a normal headache the morning after, or a real hangover headache. Procrastination was not really a good option, but enjoying a little sake was a lot more tempting than paperwork, as usual. Tsunade scowled at the paperwork, propping her chin on her hand.

Just as she was reaching for the lesser evil (in her eyes, at least), she was disturbed as Shizune entered without knocking, nor alerting Tsunade in any way before. Frowning deeply, Tsunade watched her with a serious expression, expecting an explanation. In the corner of her eye, the sake bottle was looking as dazzling as ever.

"Tsunade-sama!" she exclaimed. "Guess who's here!" Tsunade looked to the door. Before Shizune got a chance to continue, a pink-haired ninja walked into the room, happiness evident in her wide smile. Tsunades eyes widened in surprise.

"Sakura?!" she asked, nearly not believeing what she saw.

"Good morning, Tsunade-sama," she said, her emerald eyes shining. The Hokage's shoulders fell. How long had it been since she had seen her young apprentice? Just how long had it been since that day when she sent the little girl off with a load of medic scrolls and chakra control lessons that were nearly impossible to master? Tsunade still remembered how lousy she'd felt for not being able to accompany the pink-haired girl, but being a Hokage – and bossing around in the hospital – kept her.

She bent forward over her desk, eyes fixed on Sakura. She would have a long story to tell.

"You," she said, still watching Sakura. She could have sworn the girl had only been away a year or two, but for some reason she looked a whole lot more mature than that. Not in the chest area, though, but that'd probably come around later.

"Long time, no see," Sakura answered, smiling at Tsunade's lack of words. The girl still had her backpack on, which implied she had come straight to the Hokage's office before going anywhere else.

"It sure has been a while," Tsunade said, flashing a smile as she got over the surprise. Sakura laughed quietly.

Tsunade and Sakura had stayed in touch through airmail, with Sakuras very own falcon summon. It had proved to work excellently, especially when it came to getting help with training. Before Sakura left two years ago, Tsunade had taken her time to make training sessions tailor-made for her young student. The missions, if one could call them that, took place in many different countries, and so allowed for Sakura to smuggle some information every now and then. In return, Tsunade gave her news from Konoha. Tsunade glanced one last time at the pile of work that awaited her. It wasn't that much – she could save it for later. For now, she would have Sakura tell her about her journey.

"Well, unless _you_ want to do a lot of paperwork, why don't you tell us about your adventure face to face instead?" Tsunade asked, smirking. "Letters are too boring." In the corner of an eye she saw Shizune frown, but the young woman didn't comment it.

"Sure!" Sakura answered. "I can do that."

With the eyes of an annoyed Shizune on her, Tsunade grabbed the expensive bottle of sake that had been alluring her with its presence since that morning. _Hangover headache it is, then_.

After some hours of talking, Sakura was dismissed. Tsunade had by then finished more than one bottle of sake, and the only one to remember every detail of Sakura's story in the morning would be Shizune, who would most likely be ordered to write it all down and give it to the Hokage later.

* * *

Sakura was currently standing outside the jounin headquarters. Shizune had told her something of interest right before she was dismissed that troubled her a little.

No, scratch that. It was bothering her _a lot._

What Shizune had said was that Naruto and Sasuke were jounins. Both of them. Before leaving on their journey, they'd both been genins, as opposed to Sakura, who had waited to leave until she was a chuunin. But the two young men had come back to Konoha before her, and they had taken the Chuunin and Jounin exams in a row. If she trusted Shizune's words, not only Sasuke, but even Naruto had passed both exams easily. Sakura sighed with annoyance, pouting just a little. Before she left Konoha, Tsunade had taught her the basics of taijutsu and medical jutsus. On her journey, Sakura had massively improved these skills, as well as her genjutsu. She had even created her own medical jutsus. They were not all that great, but still unique.

If Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi found out she was still a chuunin, they would probably think she was the same little Sakura from back then. _The weak Sakura. _In this moment of slightly more depressing thoughts than usual, Inner Sakura showed up in her mind and refused to accept such a thing. Something had to be done, preferably before she met any of the others.

And so she marched inside the jounin-headquarters. _That's the spirit. _Slowly, her grin returned. Becoming a jounin before she met up with the others couldn't be that hard, could it? As determined she could get, she made it to the reception desk within three seconds.

* * *

Naruto turned in his bed, writhing and coiling, sweat running down his forehead.

He was having a nightmare.

_Never before had he been quite this hungry. For hours on end he'd been running and dashing towards the Ichiraku ramen stand, yet he never seemed to get closer. His chakra was, for the very first time, completely and utterly drained. He had no energy left at all, and could just barely see in front of him. But then, just as he was about to give up, he saw something tower above him. It was the Ichiraku Ramen stall – right there in front of him. Retrieving energy from the mere adrenaline, Naruto got to his feet._

_But then, just as he reached out, the ramen stall fell into shambles, taking the ramen with it-_

"No! _Ramen!_" he shouted. He jerked up into a sitting position, still sweating profusely. Looking around slowly, he scanned his surroundings. "Ra... Ramen?"

It was just a dream? Naruto knitted his eyebrows. Every time he had a dream like that, something weird happened afterwards. What would happen this time? Last time, Kakashi was ambushed by Gai during training. Kakashi won, of course, but his mask had been torn just a little bit by a flying kunai. Naruto and Sasuke had _almost_ seen his face, but he had covered it with his hand. How typical. After that, Kakashi sprinted back towards his apartment with loads of fangirls chasing him. _Many _fangirls. _Very _many. Sakura had told Naruto many times that there was no link between his dream and Kakashi's mask getting torn, but there was no way he'd believe that. Even if it was Sakura saying it.

_Sakura-chan..._

Sulking, Naruto dismissed his thoughts and jumped out of bed, moving towards the kitchen with chakra-powered feet. _Time to eat!_

* * *

Several days, and also several "do-not-get-spotted-by-old-team-members-or-friends" situations later, Sakura was back at the jounin headquarters. She'd even gone through the trouble of asking Shizune and Tsunade not to tell anyone she was back. Finally, it was Sakura's turn to have her jounin title. If she could pass the exam today, at least. She _would_ pass. She couldn't keep transforming into an old woman or cabbage salesman every time she saw someone she knew. This would end today. She would pass.

"I will pass," she said silently to herself and smiled. After the paper tests were done, she would fight someone. And in said fight, she was prepared to even let out Inner Sakura if she had to. Her grin almost turned evil. In her mind, Inner Sakura waved a fist, shouting "Shannaro!" with all her might.

She was taken to a room in which the written tests were taken, and took a seat. It only took her half an hour to answer all the questions. That was fairly fast, she knew. But it was all the time she needed.

"I'm done," she said confidently. The examiner looked up. He had been reading through some papers. Probably results from an earlier jounin-test.

"Already? Well, then we're off to the battlegrounds," he said, not waiting for her reply. He was already on his way out the door, so Sakura followed him until they got to their destination, a huge room that looked very much like the room in which with the preliminary matches were held during Team 7's first chuunin exam. In the middle of the room, three jounin awaited them. One red-haired lady Sakura had never seen before, and one dark-skinned man. The third one was standing with his back facing them, reading a book. He had silver hair.

Kakashi._  
_

_Oh no._

Sakura stopped in her tracks and acted on reflex. Like she had the past few days, she disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared as an old lady, changing the flow of her chakra until it was beyond recognizable. The examiner turned to look at her. When the third jounin turned around he turned out to be Kakashi, just as she'd thought. The book he held was orange, unmistakably well-worn, with the title 'Come Come Paradise' in its cover.

He looked amused when he saw her.

"What an entertaining form," said the red-haired woman. "Will you fight like that?"

An old lady. _Why_ did she have to turn into an old lady?

_Stupid, slow brain._

The examiner cleared his voice.

"You are to choose an opponent. Any of these three. You don't have to win the battle to pass, you only have to be good enough in combat. No killing in this exam, _old lady,_" the examiner said, smirking. The currently old lady Sakura frowned, causing her cheeks to quiver and the already deep furrows to deepen into gorges all over her wrinkled face. Couldn't she at least have turned into a slightly _younger _old lady? She even had a walker. She pointed a hand in the direction of the red-haired lady jounin. If she chose Kakashi, he would find out it was her. And then he might hold back. Sakura couldn't have that. The examiner turned to Sakura again, after writing something on the notepad he held.

"Her name is Kaede," he said. "By the way, Kakashi-san, why are you so early today?"

"Oh? Well," Kakashi started. He placed a finger on his chin, as if thinking. Then he looked directly at Sakura, who was currently distorting and hiding her chakra as much as possible so he wouldn't recognize it. She froze as his gaze met hers, and she could have sworn that her current hair turned a shade whiter than it already was. He kept watching her for some long seconds, and she blinked.

"That is... I left home early, because I figured I would meet at least one old lady who'd need help crossing the road or carrying her groceries. I didn't meet any, though," Kakashi explained, then smiled. Or his _eye _smiled, rather. "Because apparently the old lady beat me here." Sakura tried not to start laughing. No matter how one looked at it, it would look bad if she lost her dentures in front of these skilled jounins. The examiner's eyes twitched upon hearing the lousy explanation.

"Okay, then. Kakashi-san, Garou-san, we will move away from the battlefield," he said. They obliged and moved to stand behind the railing above them. Despite Sakura's silent wishes, Kakashi didn't open his book again, but rather watched her and Kaede. If this was how it was going to be, Sakura would have to fight as if she were really an old lady. She couldn't have that.

"You may begin!" the examiner said loudly, just as Sakura threw her walker out if the way and made some new hand seals.

She transformed from an old lady into the Hokage herself, still distorting her chakra to prevent Kakashi from noticing it was hers. Kaede, not distracted by her change of appearance, used a fire cannon jutsu. Sakura dodged easily, while thinking of how to defeat her without being recognized by Kakashi. Couldn't he just go outside and read or something? In her head, Inner Sakura whispered loudly, wanting Sakura to let her out. But Sakura didn't. Inner Sakura would be her last resort. Thanks to her training, she believed she would manage without that option.

Kaede threw two explosion tags attached to kunais in her direction. Sakura, still in Tsunade's form, smiled with some confidence. Then she used a genjutsu – one of her very own illusions. Her opponent suddenly relaxed, and her eyes told Sakura that Kaede was trapped. Sakura nimbly caught the two explosion tags that came her way. Kaede probably knew it was a genjutsu, but she didn't do anything. Sakura could understand why: The red-haired lady was currently floating among pink, soft clouds, enjoying total bliss free of any worldly cares and worries. It was a jutsu Sakura had made against headache.

Sakura ran forward, jumped behind Kaede and put the first explosion tag behind her on the ground, and the other one in front of her. Then she got out of the way and released the genjutsu. Immediately spotting the tag in front of her, Kaede quickly picked it up and tore the tag in half, deactivating it.

But then the explosion tag _behind _her exploded.

Half an hour later, Sakura awaited her answer in the lobby. In her own body now, she sat in the most comfy of sofas and waited for someone to show up and tell her whether or not she had passed. Was there a chance she'd failed, since she hadn't shown her full potensial? As if on cue, the examiner came out of a door close to the room in which she had taken the first test. His face didn't tell her anything – he seemed bored. That was probably a result of having to read through all the tests that were taken here.

"Haruno Sakura, your paper test went excellently. You got a top score. And though your fight was short and you changed into two people for no special reason, your fight was still good. About Kaede-san... She's fine. It would take more than an explosion tag to take her out for real. You pass," the examiner said. He looked up from the papers and tried to smile. It was closer to a bored smirk. Sakura, on the other hand, was grinning. Inner Sakura yelled 'Shannaro' so loudly Sakura couldn't help but let her smile widen even more as she thought of her next 'mission'.

Now it was about time for her to go and meet up with her old friends.

_At last._

* * *

**R.R.**

I know, no Itachi... But I'll try to make it worth the wait.


	2. Reunion

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only the plot of this fan-written story.

Trying my best to be original, but with that many Naruto fanfics out there... Wow...

* * *

Reunion

* * *

Sakura dashed towards Ichiraku, thinking there was a possibility Naruto might be there. As she got closer, she felt the delicious smell of ramen, but there was no sign of the orange-clad boy. Sakura stopped in her tracks, looking around. Perhaps he was training. The loud ninja was a jounin now, so he had to keep his skills honed, right? Sakura decided to give it a go, and went to the training grounds. When she got there the sky was already getting darker. There was not a single person within sight. Only trees and fallen leaves, all with the warm colors of autumn. Sakura's shoulders fell.

Where _are _they?

Deciding to go back to her apartment, she left the training grounds. These last couple of days her friends had been everywhere, and she'd had to hide or transform into someone different all the time to stay unnoticed. But now that she actively searched for them, they were nowhere to be found. Finding it strange, and also a little ironic, Sakura frowned. For now, though, her apartment awaited her. Shizune had cared for it while she was away. By doing occasional missions on her journey, which were given to her via airmail thanks to her falcon summon, she had earned enough cash to pay the bills. Half of her wages were sent to her, while Shizune used the other half to pay the bills addressed to Sakura.

She came to a halt upon passing a café.

_A party?_

Her eyes widened. There was Ino, her childhood friend and rival, yet friend most of all. Her high, pale ponytail was so long she couldn't even see the end of it from where she was standing. Happy to finally see a familiar face, Sakura ran to the door and slammed it open, a little harder than necessary. Ino looked in her direction, startled at first. Then her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Saku-" she started.  
"SAKURA-CHAAAN!" someone else interrupted – someone whose voice was also familiar...

Sakura spun to face the source of the voice. She had already noticed Shikamaru and Chouji, but she had failed to notice the loudest of them all: Naruto was there as well! She grinned widely as she got hugged from both sides, by Naruto on her left and Ino on her right, and laughed loudly.

"Sakura-chan, we've missed you so much! When I got back from the journey with Ero-Sennin I was told you'd left on a trip too, and then-" Naruto started.

"You'll _never_ guess what's happened!" Ino beamed, interrrupting Naruto. "Look! Look at my hand!" Ino said, beaming. Sakura stared at her finger, at the ring that was there. For a moment she was shocked, and a hint of her rivalry resurfaced as she realized Ino had gotten proposed to before herself, but the moment soon passed and she laughed with joy, hugging Ino again. Naruto felt a little left out, and so he stepped back to stand with Shikamaru, who looked as lazy as always.

"Congratulations, Ino-pig!" Sakura said, elated to be with her friend. "Who's the lucky man? Shikamaru?"

"Shikamaru it is, Forehead Girl!" Ino replied, the two of them playfully half-fighting each other. Shikamaru gave a long sigh. How they could be so comfortable around each other even after calling each other pig and forehead girl was beyond him. If _he _ever said it...

"Welcome back, Sakura-san," he commented.

"Mm, welcome home!" Chouji added, his mouth full of food. Naruto approached the two girls carefully, wondering if they were done sqealing and fighting.

"Um, Sakura-chan..." he tried.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Naruto!" Sakura apologized, and Ino went back to Shikamaru. Naruto was half a head taller than her and seemed as healthy as ever. His grin was as wide as she remembered, or perhaps even wider, and his attitude was completely the same. But he'd still changed a lot. He looked a lot more mature. But that sheepish grin and that 'hands-on-the-back-of-the-head' pose remained. Sakura laughed quietly.

"What?" Naruto asked and lowered his arms to look around and see what she was laughing at.

"Ah, nothing," she said happily. "I'm just so happy to see you. You look good!" Still grinning, he raised one of his arms behind his head and gave an especially sheepish laugh.

"But where is Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei?" she asked. Naruto's face turned business-like.

"They're on a _mission._ Just a short one, but still, it's a _mission,_ and _missions_ must be taken _seriously,_" he said and nodded matter-of-factly.

"Oh? What kind of mission?" she asked, genuinely interested. Her emerald eyes searched his blue ones for an answer while he tried coming up with one.

"They're fixing the Konoha prison, in the basement," Naruto answered in a low voice. "You know, where the most dangerous prisoners are." He looked a bit jealous. "I wasn't allowed to come because granny Tsunade said that I'd probably break it down instead of fixing it. I mean, why would I do that? I'm _responsible,_" he said, looking hurt. Sakura chuckled. "Anyway, Sakura-chan, you can see them tomorrow, since their mission will be finished by then. Just come to the bridge, like we used to before!" he said, happier this time.

"I will, so you better be there on time!" Sakura said, grinning.

* * *

After a long night of well-deserved sleep, she put on her brand new jounin uniform. The black clothes fit her perfectly, and the slightly baggy pants were comfortable. She didn't use the vest, though, which left her with an anonymous black sweater. Then she observed herself in the mirror. Her new sandals would take a while for her to get used to, but other than that, she was just fine. She had short hair still, and her red headband was in place, sitting safely above her forelocks. Satisfied, she glanced at her clock, which was nicely placed on her bedroom table.

At this rate, _she _was the one who'd be late. Frowning, she turned to look at the window, getting an idea.

_Oh no, I won't. _

Sakura allowed herself to smirk as she opened it and stepped outside, stopping only briefly on the rooftop next to the window. After shutting it, she readied herself for the large jump – or _fall –_that was to come. Before she could change her mind, she ran to the edge and jumped down – from the upper floor.

At the same time as she jumped, Kakashi walked around the corner. He was very busy reading his book at the moment – he would never get tired of it. But despite his unmistakable interest in the book, something else caught his attention as he walked down the street. A shadow on the ground, some meters in front of him. He looked up and saw, to his great surprise, a pink-haired ninja falling down from Sakura's apartment. While closing the book and quickly putting it into his pocket as he moved, he ran towards where she would land, intending to catch the falling ninja. If she was really Sakura, there was no way she could handle a fall from that height, no matter how controlled the fall looked.

As if in slow motion, Sakuras eyes widened. He had to move _away_, not get _in the way_. Did he think she, a ninja, would just fall from the upper floor by accident?

"_Move-!_" she shouted, still in the air on the way to the ground. Taken aback by this request, her older teacher stopped just in time to see that the younger girl was already prepared to land – the chakra was visible in her legs and hands, even. Hurriedly he stepped back, observing as she carried out a perfect landing. His visible eye went wide.

"Sakura?" he said quietly, watching as she rose to her feet.

"Um, good morning, Kakashi-sensei," she said sheepishly, her smile awkward. During the jounin-exams, she hadn't dared to look at him too much, afraid he'd notice that the old lady was actually _her._ Kakashi hadn't changed at all. His silver hair hadn't changed, his mask was still in its place and she was quite certain he had his book in one of those pockets. Kakashi looked from Sakura to the upper floor of the building.

"Ah, sorry, I just didn't have time to walk the stairs," she explained sheepishly. "I don't want to be late."

"Hn? I see. Well, you landed nicely," he said, his eye smiling. "Welcome back, Sakura!" He seemed as careless as ever, though, and she was obviously not the only one going to be late.

"Shall we go?" Sakura asked, feeling the time running out.

"Maybe I should arrive a little earlier than usual for a change. Wouldn't want to miss Naruto's or Sasuke's faces, would I?" he said, mostly to himself.

"Ah, I've already met Naruto – we met yesterday. But I wonder how Sasuke-kun will react, though," Sakura said quietly, an ever-so familiar blush warming her face.

Meanwhile at the bridge, Naruto and Sasuke were waiting for their sensei, and for Sakura. Naruto had told the Uchiha all about their meeting the day before – about how different she looked and yet at the same time she was herself. He'd spent five full minutes talking about her short hair and that she still used the same shampoo – which smelled really good, in the blonde's opinion – and that she looked more like a grownup. Sasuke grew annoyed with Naruto's babbling soon enough and stopped paying attention.

"If he doesn't get here soon," the black-haired man muttered.

And as if on cue, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke with one hand in the air, greeting them. "Yo," he said. He was about to start explaining why he was late, but then a second puff of smoke announced the arrival of Sakura.

"Good morning," she managed, smiling uncontrollably. For some reason, she just couldn't hold back. Maybe it had something to do with being able to see Sasuke again.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, hugging her quickly with his trademark grin on his face, then spun around to see how Sasuke would react. The Uchiha moved to the middle of the bridge, slowly approaching Sakura. He was taller than Naruto – maybe one head taller than Sakura – and his hair looked somehow darker than before. His pale skin looked just like she remembered, and his face was devoid of any emotion other than skepticism. Surprisingly, his Sharingan eyes were active, all but scanning her.

"Eh, hello, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said nervously, blushing profusely when he came to a halt right in front of her.

"Sakura, huh," he said, as if checking it was truly her. She nodded, and after narrowing his eyes, he deactivated his Sharingan. But he still watched her, his eyes unreadable.

"The strongest team is ready to go!" Naruto exclaimed. "You know, Sakura, if you become a jounin, we'll be invincible!"

Sakura glanced at him, smirking, then took an artistic break before speaking.

"I'm not a chuunin. I'm a _j__ounin, _too," she finished, grinning. Everyone looked at her, first with wide eyes. Kakashi was the first to speak.

"You... Could it be that you were that applicant who transformed into an old lady?" he asked, amused. Sakura gave an awkward laugh. Naruto looked completely clueless, and Sasuke... Sasuke was still unreadable. Sakura decided to give them a short explanation. A simple version, for their sake.

"Well, in the Jounin Exams, I trasformed into an old lady, and then into Tsunade-sama, just to keep Kakasi-sensei from figuring out it was me. I still passed, though I had to bomb a jounin to stand a chance without being recognized," Sakura said, smirking confidently. Wondering in silence how strong she had become, or if she had become stronger at all, the team went straight to the training grounds. Once they arrived, Kakashi got their attention.

"Let's have a training match – we'll have you fight each other," he said. "Just like old times."

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other.

"And you will _not _use Rasengan, _or_ Chidori," added the sensei. Naruto's shoulders fell and Sasuke flashed a small frown. Sakura watched as they put some distance between each other and turned to start the fight. Then, simultaneously, they ran at each other, kunais and throwing stars already in the air. Sakura watched in awe.

"Will they be okay if they fight each other seriously?" she asked, worried.

"These fights always end in a draw. They'll fight until they can't even stand anymore," Kakashi said, a sheepish smile around his eye. Not entirely calm after hearing that, she looked at the two rivals fighting as best they could without using their favourite moves.

"In other words, they'll be fine. Both are very talented, so they'll probably recover within a day or two. Besides, we have an aspiring medic-nin at our side now, just in case," Kakashi added. Sakura flashed a soft smile, her eyes still fixed on her sparring teammates.

Naruto used his kage-bunshin jutsu and created five clones. They charged towards Sasuke with kunais in their hands, throwing them at him at ridiculously high speed. Sasuke just smirked as he put his hands next to his mouth.

A second later a giant fireball was formed, so warm that Sakura had to close her eyes despite the distance between them. When she opened them, the clones and Naruto were gone. As seconds passed, Sakura got increasingly worried. But suddenly a hand came up from the burned ground and grabbed Sasuke by his ankle. Sakura let out the breath she'd been holding. She had seen that move before. Watching the two of them fight made her want to give it a go herself. Just as she was about to ask, someone appeared next to them.

It was Shizune.

"Hello Kakashi-san, Sakura," she started. "I have a message from Tsunade-sama. Team 7 is to meet in her office at noon tomorrow. There's an important mission waiting for you," she said, looking at them with a forced smile – her face more serious than usual. "12 o'clock _sharp,_" she repeated. "And don't you dare be late."

* * *

**R.R**

Oh noes~


	3. Departure

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (the show and the character) or Itachi. This is a fan-written story.

On a roll~

* * *

Departure

* * *

Walking down the dimly lit hall, Uchiha Itachi listened to the distant roar of the massive waterfall behind him.

This was one of the better hideouts of Akatsuki – one made by himself and Kisame. The two of them were the only ones who used it, too. It was only a cave in the beginning, but every time they were there they did small improvements to it, and since it was a long time since they had first set foot in it, it'd had time to massively improve. Now it was a lot more spacious. It had several rooms, all with proper doors and basic furniture. The entrance was completely hidden by the large waterfall outside, much to Kisame's enjoyment. That man didn't mind even if the place flooded.

_Speaking of Kisame..._

He'd been out training for several days more than usual. Maybe he'd run into trouble.

Itachi stopped for a moment, lost in thought. How many doors had he passed? He looked over his shoulder. _One. Two. Three... Four?_ He frowned. His sight was only getting worse, and it was getting on his nerves. In the beginning he had tried healing them himself, using medical jutsus that he had once copied from other ninjas. But over time that had had stopped helping. His precision was too low, and the fact that he couldn't see his own eyes clearly even in the mirror did not help. In addition to that, the build of the eyes of an Uchiha were not entirely known even to himself. Another possibility was that his eyes were getting immune to his own healing chakra. But he couldn't be sure.

The Uchiha turned his head forward again, his dark hair sliding over his shoulder. He needed someone who was _educated_ and _skilled._ But _needing _was not the same as _wanting. _For him to allow any ninja close to his most valuable weapon was absurd – a foolish idea with much too many risks.

For now, he would manage.

Just then, the sound of sloshing water ricocheted down the hall from the waterfall entrance. More splashes followed, slow and heavy, followed by steps of feet that were unmistakably soaked.

_Kisame? _Itachi recognized his chakra.

But Kisame wasn't very talkative right now, surprisingly. Usually he was loud every time he returned to the hideout. Or perhaps his silence this time wasn't so surprising, because not only could Itachi hear the fish-man limping and dragging his feet, he could also feel the strong, rusty stench of blood.

"Kisame," he said. His words weren't loud, but his voice still echoed in the cave, clear over the faint sound of the waterfall, which wasn't very close to that particular part of the cave. Their hideout was deep inside the mountain, so the sound of the falling water was soothing rather than disturbing.

"Yeah, yeah," Kisame garbled, his voice rough, even more so than usual. "Jus' get me something to drink and a few days to rest an' I'll be a'right..."

When the blue-skinned man came into view, Itachi found he didn't need particularly good eyesight to understand that his teammate already had one foot in the next world. A gash went from his shoulder and halfway down through his torso, and Itachi had no doubt his arm and shoulder would have fallen off a long time ago if Kisame hadn't literally held himself together with his other arm. Deathly pale and on the brink of losing consciousness – his eyes were going white – the blue man let himself fall against the wall.

Without a word Itachi helped him to his room, muttering makeshift medical jutsus to relieve pain and stop the blood from leaving the wound. Meanwhile Kisame muttered things about tailed beasts and claws, and that said claws were cursed for not letting him heal up right away. Itachi set a genjutsu – an illusion – in motion that would keep his teammate conscious, which earned him a long string of curses from the bigger man. All those shattered bones, severed veins and sliced-up organs required pin-point precision and utter chakra control. But whereas the latter was no problem, Itachi's eyes seemed utterly incompatible with the precision-requiring task at hand.

Kisame would die, there was no doubt about it.

_Unless..._

"I am going hunting," he stated, at which Kisame said to at least leave a bottle of sake within reach.

* * *

Sakura was the first one to arrive at the Hokages office the next day. Sasuke got there shortly after her. She stole a few glances in his direction, still unable to get used to the older version of him. He looked a lot more mature and seemed to have changed a little bit more than Naruto. His face was calm, not allowing any facial expression except for small frowns or smirks that didn't last. He looked at her, not revealing any of his thoughts. Inner Sakura spoke up, squealing in her mind that he looked incredibly handsome, as before. She also claimed he was one of the few men who could be described as 'gorgeous' without it sounding like an insult. Sakura couldn't disagree.

"So, what kind of mission do you think this is?" she asked, trying to smile a little. He was making her turn into the old and shy Sakura again.

"Who knows," he answered, then looked at her strangely. "Can't be anything too dangerous, though." Sakura's shoulders fell slightly. Did he by any chance think they were getting an easy mission because of _her_? She looked down, slightly hurt, but mostly annoyed. She'd show him that she'd become strong too. She wanted to impress him. Naruto opened the door and slammed it shut about ten seconds before the time limit. He was breathing heavily.

"Hah! I made it! Sakura-chan, I ate ten bowls of ramen without a break and I still got here before noon! My stomach doesn't even hurt from the fast eating!" he exclaimed, patting his stomach while grinning widely. And as soon as he'd spoken the words, his stomach gave a thoroughly complaining sound and his face turned into grimace that could only be described as constipated. The yellow-haired young man gave a forced laugh. Sakura didn't know if she should laugh or yell at him for his recklessness. The door was once again opened and Tsunade came inside. She looked rather tired. Behind her came Shizune, who was as awake and alert as always, even though she wasn't smiling like she usually did. Once she closed the door, it opened a mere three seconds later. This time, it was Kakashi. The skilled jounin shut the door behind him without a sound.

"Yo," he said, his usual greeting, followed by a weak and not too loud explanation of how he had to help an old man walk down the stairs to his mailbox, and then back up again. Tsunade ignored him, looking as though she was suffering from a severe headache.

"Team 7, I have a mission for you... It could be an A-rank one or an S-ranked one, depending on how well you plan it," she started, her voice low. Maybe she had a hangover. Kakashi looked the same as always, Sasuke closed his eyes. Naruto nearly jumped up and down with excitement, but managed to keep his feet on the floor. This was a high rank mission and he looked more than happy to accept it. Sakura's eyes just widened at the news. She had, in fact, finished a couple of information-gathering A-rank missions on her journey, but never an S-rank one.

"I will only send you on this mission if you pass a test," Tsunade continued, her voice serious. They looked confused. It wasn't unheard of for ninjas to be tested before a mission, but it wasn't exactly something that happened every day. "And I want you to not only look at it as a _test,_ but as a sort of special training. So take it _seriously._"

"What sort of test is it?" Kakashi asked.

"You will have to pass the ANBU exams to become hunter ninjas. I'll be explaining why afterwards."

* * *

After several questions and some low protests later (by Naruto to help Sakura, who he thought wasn't strong enough for this just yet), Tsunade and Team 7 ended up in a long hallway. It had five doors: The door they had arrived through, as well as four others, each of them with an ANBU member guarding it. Tsunade sighed.

"It would usually take a couple of days to even apply for permission to take an ANBU-exam, but I'm the Hokage, so I pulled a few strings. The rules are the same as in the Jounin Exams, only this time there will be no written tests. And," Tsunade said, taking a short break. Her face turned serious. "This time, you are allowed to fight to kill. It's that kind of a battle. But only do so if you find it completely necessary," she finished. Kakashi sighed and looked at his ex-students. Naruto didn't seem to like the idea of killing a fellow Kohoha-ninja, and neither did Sakura. But what about Sasuke? Would he do it? They'd been journeying together, and he'd had to hold the Uchiha back on a occasions.

"Hatake Kakashi, the first door. Uchiha Sasuke, the second door. Uzumaki Naruto, the third door. Haruno Sakura, the fourth door. Your opponents are inside, and the ones next to your assigned doors are your examiners," Tsunade explained.

"Huh? But wasn't Kakashi-sensei an ANBU member before?" Sakura asked. Naruto looked at him too. Kakashi put his finger on his chin, as if thinking.

"Ah, well... I used to be, but then I reverted back to being a jounin. Less stress, more time to read," he said, smiling sheepishly. "Besides, I wasn't originally an ANBU _hunter_-nin. So, to become one, I have to pass this exam, just like you," he added, waving his hand lazily. Tsunade cleared her voice.

"Okay, let's get started. Get in there and make sure to do your best," she said loudly. Sakura immediately walked toward the end of the hall to her door, with Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes on her back. Her short hair billowed a little as she picked up speed.

"Say... Kakashi-sensei, will Sakura-chan be okay?" Naruto asked, visibly worried. Kakashi glanced in her direction, but calmly started to walk towards his own assigned door.

"We'll see," he said quietly. "For now, just worry about your own battle." Not saying anything else, Sasuke and Naruto went to their exam rooms.

Only three minutes later, Kakashi came back out again. Tsunade, who'd been waiting in the hall, turned to look at him.

"Oh? You're that skilled?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Haha... You see, I wasn't really doing that well, but then my opponent accidentally cut my book with a kunai," he said quietly, holding up his now slightly scarred copy of _Come Come Paradise_. Tsunade's eyes widened. For a moment she wondered if his opponent had any bodyparts left.

Any at all_.  
_  
"Don't worry, he only suffered a few genjutsus," Kakashi assured her, pointing at his Sharingan, which was now covered by his headband. Just then a loud explosion was heard somewhere close. Several smashes and ruptures followed, and impossible as it might sound, Naruto and Sasuke opened their doors at exactly the same time. Sasuke was dirty, and was breathing heavily. Naruto was also dirty, as well as thoroughly bruised, but his grin was wider than ever before.

Sakura was the only one left.

* * *

Several cuts covered Sakura's entire body and her left hand hung uselessly at her side. She dodged another kunai and jumped away from an explosion in the nick of time. Her opponent used explosion tags all the time, never faltering, never letting her rest or attack. If Sakura hadn't trained her speed, she would have been in pieces by now, one in each corner of the big hall. She couldn't do this, not if that man didn't give her time to concentrate her chakra into her fist. As if on cue, _s_omething tickled in her mind, giving her an idea. Sakura stopped. Her head was bent forward, and her opponent couldn't see her face.

"What? You finished already?" her opponent asked arrogantly, his voice dark. A string of mocking chuckles escaped his lips when she fell to her knees.

But his laughter ceased soon enough. Sakura had concentrated a large amout of chakra to her hand and at the same time as she'd let herself fall to her knees, she smashed it into the ground, releasing all the concentrated chakra at once. Waves of rocks and boulders came towards the ANBU-member from both sides. The muddy ground towered above him before trapping him in a prison of earth, barely leaving room for him to breathe. Like this he wouldn't be able to see, nor hear anything at all. Sakura let the rocks close in more slowly, knowing her opponent couldn't run – he couldn't use his exposives to get out, either. That would kill him.

"Surrender!" Sakura said loudly, hoping he'd hear.

"No!" came his instantaneous answer. The wall of earth closed in faster. He probably thought she didn't have it in her to kill him. And he was right to believe that.

"Surrender, _now,_" she said, her voice serious. The rocks were now pressing at him from all sides. He was going to get either suffocated or crushed if this continued. Then she heard a bone crack, shortly followed by another. Gritting her teeth, she hoped that'd make him reconsider. What good would it do to die at the hands of a fellow Konoha ninja? What good would it do her to _kill _a fellow Konoha ninja?

"I-I...surr-end-" he said, as loud as he could muster. He couldn't breathe anymore, she was sure, but Sakura and the examiner heard him. Sakura punched the ground again, controlling her chakra so that the rocky prison split in half, freeing her opponent. She got to her legs, breathing heavily, but other than that, she was doing fine – a lot better than her opponent, anyway.

Sakura smiled weakly, happy that she'd managed without killing anyone. The examiner checked the status of her opponent and approached her. She glanced at the torn ground, happy that the room was filled with mud and rocks, because if she'd broken the floor itself, it was going to take more than a few days of work to put it together again. Her examiner looked somewhat surprised that she'd done so well.

_Well, looking weak can be an asset in a fight._

"Your opponent will live. It was your victory, so you've passed the test," he said in an important voice. Her shoulders fell as she relaxed. After healing her arm she headed for the door, smiling confidently.

* * *

Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Tsunade heard the final rumble, which was much louder than what they'd heard earlier. This did, of course, make them worry somewhat, perhaps except Tsunade, who had helped her train – she was more worried about Sakura's opponent. But even so, none of them voiced their worries or thoughts, all of them waiting for Sakura to come out through that door. Luckily, Sasuke hadn't killed anyone. Just _almost._ Naruto hadn't either, so everything was fine. _So far._

"Sa-Sakura-chan... Old-Lady Tsunade, will she be okay?" Naruto asked silently, looking worriedly at the Hokage. "You don't think she is badly hurt, huh? Should we go and check on her?"

"Check on me?" Sakura asked quietly from behind him. Naruto spun around and the ninjas watched as the pink-haired girl gave them a short, reassuring smile. She looked tired and had cuts all over her body, but other than that she didn't look hurt at all.

"Oh? Scratches? Sorry, you must have been given one of the slightly harder opponents," Tsunade said casually.

"Sakura-chan? You okay? You look so tired... If you didn't pass, that's alright, you kno-" Naruto started, but stopped as she flashed him a well-trained glare of impending death. Then she pointed at her door.

"Go. Just have a look," she commanded. She was sick and tired of being looked upon as the small and weak Sakura that they remembered from back then. The others obliged, thinking it was best to do as the weak, whiny little girl said, lest they become victims to more whining. When they came inside, however, realization hit them at once. She had _obviously _passed.

But Naruto got the wrong idea. He turned to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"We understand how hard it must have been... Sakura-chan, it's completely okay that you lost. I mean, come on, who would win with an opponent like _that? _The ground is all smashed up!" he said, looking at her. Then he glanced at the battlefield again, and saw Sakura's opponent. His brain worked as fast as it could, and then he turned to her very slowly. His eyes widened, and his hands flew off her. "Y-Y-You- Did that?!" he exclaimed.

Sakura gave a wide smirk upon finally being acknowledged. Inner Sakura voiced her satisfaction by shouting 'Shannaro' as loud as she could.

"Yup, I passed!" she said loudly. Her smirk quickly grew to a hearty grin. Tsunade watched her proudly, and waved a clenched fist in the air in triumph. _That'__s _the Hokage's apprentice! Naruto looked terrified, Sasuke's eyes were, as a matter of fact, considerably larger than normal, whereas Kakashi tried to pretend he wasn't taken aback the slightest. He was glad he wasn't the one who'd have to clean it all up, though.

* * *

Back in the Hokage's office, Tsunade had her paperwork ready for a change. She looked up at the team in front of her and sighed, her mood having stooped a little since earlier, for some reason. Her brown eyes looked at each of them in turn.

"Well, back to your mission, Team 7. As brand new ANBU hunter-nins, you will leave on this mission as soon as absolutely possible. This very evening, as a matter of fact," she informed.

"Who will we be hunting down?" Sasuke asked, eyes burning. Tsunade didn't answer his question, but frowned faintly. They all knew who Sasuke was hoping it would be.

"First things first, Sasuke. Team 7's target is currently close to one of his hideouts in the Waterfall country. He is expected to move soon, so you have to hurry. Bring all of your best equipment and do not underestimate him. _Plan _before you move," she said, her voice strict. She tilted her head slightly and rubbed her temples with both hands before looking at them again. Sakura thought she could see something in her tired eyes.

She looked _sad._

"Come back alive. The one you are hunting down and _killing, _is one of Konoha's missing-nins," Tsunade said, taking a short break before delivering the final blow. "Orochimaru."

* * *

**RR**

What?! They're not hunting down Itachi?


	4. Mission

Disclaimer: I do not own the manga/anime Naruto or its characters. Just the plot of this story.

* * *

Mission

* * *

Sakura was standing right outside the Konoha gate, looking away from the village. The autumn trees moved in the weak wind, letting leaves flutter to the ground every other second. It was actually a little ironic. She had looked _into _Konoha not too many days ago. Frowning slightly, she turned around to face the evening-lit Konoha, determined to remember as much as possible before she left again. Not that she would forget it, that wouldn't happen, but she wanted to keep the image of the village as clear as possible. She couldn't hide the fact that she was a little sad to leave, though.

At the moment, she was wearing an ANBU uniform. Her black and slightly baggy pants reminded her of the jounin trousers that she hadn't really used all that much. She had a black sleeveless shirt with a high neck, and black gloves that went just past her elbows. On top of her long gloves, she wore white arm-protectors, thick enough to shield her from most weapons if she were to engage in battle. She also had a white leather vest, padded to protect her torso from attacks, and black boots. A mask of her own was placed on the side of her head, ready to be moved in front of her face if she needed to shield her identity. Finally, she had a small backpack containing everything she needed, as well as some extra medical equipment just in case. It was surprising that they'd gotten their ANBU gear so soon, though, considering they'd passed just a few hours ago.

Sakura looked up upon seeing Sasuke arrive, walking slowly with his hands in his pockets. He wore an ANBU-uniform as well, which by itself was enough to turn her knees into jelly and her heart into a dangerously sparkly river of rainbows and diamonds. Her cheeks got so red she considered pulling her mask on. His mask was different from her own, she noticed. Her mask was white with two emerald green circles around the eye-holes. It also had a pink circle on each cheek. Sasuke's mask had red circles around the eye-holes and nothing else. He also had his mask on the side of his head, ready to hide his face with it.

Just by looking at him, Sakura felt her heartbeat increase by leaps and bounds. The uniform fit him so perfectly it looked like it was designed for him – like he was born for the sole purpose of wearing it.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun," she said quietly, shy as that.

"Hn," he replied, not even looking at her.

"Are looking forward to the mission?" Sakura tried.

"Depends on how it ends," Sasuke commented, and then glanced in her direction. He'd been disappointed when their mission target proved to be Orochimaru and not Sasuke's older brother, Uchiha Itachi.

"Yeah," she said in a whisper. She wondered who'd have to deliver the final blow to the white-skinned snake man.

Naruto arrived shortly after Sasuke, with a backpack smelling suspiciously of ramen. He was dressed in an ANBU uniform too, and his mask had blue circles around its eye-holes. He'd also painted sloppy red whiskers on each side of the mask, which fit him. Sakura glanced one more time at Sasuke. Before he and Naruto had left on their separate journeys with Kakashi and Jiraya, she'd been deeply in love with Sasuke, as many people were probably able to find out just by watching how she acted around him. Her feelings for him hadn't faded, but they hadn't gotten stronger, either. After all, she didn't properly know this man who she hadn't seen in two years. He'd never been interested in her that way, and probably wouldn't be in the future either, at least judging by how cold his eyes were when he looked at her.

_Like ice._

But she wouldn't give up just yet.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted, waving a hand as he came closer. At least _Naruto _treated her kindly. She flashed him a smile. Some seconds later, a puff of smoke signalized the arrival of a certain silver-haired teacher.

"Yo," Kakashi said, holding up an arm up in a casual greeting. He had a book in his other hand, which surprisingly didn't look like the dirty novels he usualy read.

"Eh?" Sakura blurted. "Kakashi-sensei, you're early!"

"Well, out of respect for the Hokage... This is one of the more important missions, you know. I even got us a copy of the newest bingo-book. It was published yesterday so it was sold out almost everywhere today," he explained. The book contained information about the most dangerous criminals, as well as wanted people from all around the world. The few Akatsuki members that had been spotted in action were there as well, and Sakura wouldn't be surprised if Orochimaru was in it – she would be more surprised if he _wasn't. _She glanced at Kakashi's ANBU mask. It had one read eye, and the other was black. Nothing else. He wore an ANBU uniform as well, which seemed a bit more washed-out than theirs. Maybe it was his old one. In any case, it fit him suspiciously well.

"I can see you're fully dressed. So, did the tattoos hurt?" He looked at Naruto.

"Nah, they put some stuff on my arm, making it go numb, then they tattooed it. Didn't hurt at all!" Naruto answered, brushing it off with his trademark grin. Sakura knitted her eyebrows a little at that. She hadn't exactly _liked _getting that tattoo on her shoulder.

"I see you've all made your masks special. I doubt Orochimaru will fail to recognize us," Kakashi said and put the bingo-book in his pouch.

"Isn't that bad?" Sakura asked, worried.

"No, I'd say it's good. He'll most likely underestimate you guys and go for me instead. Then you can attack him from behind," Kakashi explained, his eye arching in a smile. "Or he'll go for Sasuke, and then he'll be in for a nasty susprise. You're a lot stronger now than you were, Sasuke." The Uchiha said nothing, but Sakura suspected he might actually like the compliment, because he turned away so his face was out of view. It made her smile.

"Say, Kakashi-sensei... What makes you think he'll underestimate us now, now that we've grown so strong?" Naruto pouted, looking a little hurt. Kakshi turned to him.

"Well, there is a _small _possibility he'll believe that you haven't improved much from the genins he fought years ago," he said, and his words were met by silence. Sasuke glanced over his shoulder, smirking, then started walking out of Konoha.

The others followed close behind.

* * *

After traveling all day without even a single stop, the team decided to set up camp for the night. They were all tired, though no one said it aloud, but because they were ahead of their schedule, it was all right to take a decent break. Sakura readied her sleeping bag quickly, putting some distance between herself and the others on purpose. Naruto probably rolled around too much, and sleeping next to Kakashi would only make her uncomfortable. And sleeping next to Sasuke was out of the question - then she'd be too nervous to get a minute of shut-eye at all.

"Sakura-chan, let's eat!" Naruto exclaimed, and threw his backpack by his sleeping bag. He then sat down next to the fire Sasuke had just made, making a couple of hand seals. Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura looked at him with some curiousity. He then cut his thumb with his teeth and put his hand on the ground.

"Kuchiose no jutsu!" he said. A summoning jutsu.

A big bowl of warm ramen appeared in front of him on the ground, ready to be eaten. The group stared at it, not _completely _getting it.

"Um, Naruto... Who would cut their thumb just to summon _ramen?_" Sakura asked quietly, though they all knew the answer.

"_I _would, Sakura-chan!" he answered, grinning. She burst out laughing, realizing just how much she'd missed going on a mission with her old team, and then Naruto started laughing too. Even Sasuke smirked. Kakashi bent his eye in a smile and continued reading. Not the bingo book from before, but _Come Come Paradise_. Some things just never changed, and for that, she was happy.

* * *

"Oookay! Let's GO!" Naruto yelled, and went into a stance that looked frighteningly much like one of Lee's legendarily youthful poses. The group promptly left him behind, but it didn't take long before he caught up with them, claiming his position in the front. They had gotten up very early that morning, to plan everything thoroughly. They were ready. The increasingly cold wind blowing through the trees didn't stop them, though it _did _make their journey a little less comfortable.

For the next hours, they barely spoke at all. An occasional word or two, perhaps, but not more. At noon they stopped next to a small river to have something to drink. They had put their ANBU masks on a long time ago and moved warily, always out of sight and not too close to roads.

All of a sudden Kakashi spun around, his Sharingan eye glowing red inside the mask. He was looking at something – or _someone. _The others stopped, remaining completely still – they had been spotted.

Knowing they might be in danger, as their enemy could be anywhere in the surrounding trees, they had to move fast. In a matter of seconds all of Team 7 was out of the woods, all of them staying together, back to back. The wide field they found themselves in was covered in grass that was almost as tall as Sakura. The others could see more than she could. Judging by the few barely noticeable gestures Kakashi made next, they had just found their target.

Orochimaru was right in front of them, standing and watching them from a distance.

The white-skinned man let his mouth form an abnormally long, narrow grin as he observed their uniforms, then their masks.

"Oh?" he said. "I wonder..." His previously evil smile widened into a hideous grin. Unexpectedly, he already had his sword out, and now he was weighing it in his hand with ease, then wasted no more time – he dashed straight at them.

* * *

Itachi walked out of the village. It was small and seemed peaceful, but it had its secrets. For the last couple of days, he had visited every village he knew of in the area, trying to find a good a medic-nin to patch up Kisame. In almost every single place he visited, there wasn't even a medic of average skills, and evey time, he was told that the best medic-nin was probably the Hokage in Konoha, Tsunade. It didn't take a mastermind to figure out that it was nigh on impossible to capture someone like her, much less make her work for him.

Once again forced to move on, Itachi jumped up onto a branch and continued traveling southeast. He wondered how long his jutsus would keep Kisame alive. The last time he'd checked on him, he was more gray than blue. Just as he was pondering this, he heard something. He stopped to listen, curious as to what was going on in such a deserted place. The wind brought a faint smell of dust in his direction, as well as sounds of a fight. Itachi masked his chakra completely, then approached, determined to find out whose chakra he felt pulse through the air, for not only one, but several of them felt eerily familiar.

As he arrived, he came to a halt.

The fight was nearly over already. They had been fighting for a while already, it seemed. Itachi didn't see who they were from this distance, but their chakras told him what he needed to know, and more. His brother, Sasuke, and the copy-ninja Kakashi were there. Orochimaru was their opponent. He could also feel the chakra of Naruto, the container of the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox. Why were they there? Itachi frowned a little in concentration, then activated his Sharingan. It revealed that there were countless small snakes around, hiding in the tall grass. There were a whole lot of larger snakes as well, most likely among Orochimaru's best summons. Said creatures were currently swarming around another source of chakra that he didn't recognize.

* * *

"_Sakura-chan!_" Naruto shouted, his form surrounded by the red chakra that was not really his own.

He had been using the chakra of the Kyuubi for some time now. Sakura was surrounded by three giant snakes, all of which eyed her in a way that he didn't like at all. But Naruto was kept at a distance by a much larger snake, presumably one of Orochimaru's favorite summons.

"Naruto-kun, your dear Sakura might not be around long enough to heal you," Orochimaru said, his deep voice poisonous.

Sakura hadn't been doing anything else than healing in the entire fight, as it would be bad if she lost too much chakra, according to plan. Just as she readied herself to do some attacking, Naruto's Kage Bunshins came to the rescue. The shadow clones jumped at the snakes, all surrounded in red chakra. Sakura moved out of their way and dashed into the tall grass to hide.

_Huh?_

She looked in front of her. To her great surprise, Orochimaru was standing with his back towards her, facing Sasuke and Kakashi. Eyeing an opportunity, Sakura darted forward to attack. But right before she planted a chakra-powered fist in his back, he turned around and before she could react, he thrust his sword into her chest. Then he pulled the blade out again, watching as she fell to her knees in the tall grass, blood already streaming from the fresh wound. At first, she was just shocked. She couldn't quite tell what had happened, and felt darkness gripping at her mind. One of the last things she saw was Orochimaru's back as he turned away from her. And then everything faded as she fell to the ground.

"Try and see if she can heal you _now!_" came Orochimaru's cruel snarl as he flashed them another cruel grin.

Kakashi stared in shock at the place Sakra had fallen. The grass was hiding her from view. Sasuke was trembling with rage and exhaustion and Naruto had fallen to his knees. This was taking too long. The Kyuubi wouldn't let Naruto extract any more if its chakra. Orochimaru was also breathing heavily, but he was still alive. But Sakura...

"Orochimaru! _I'll KILL you!_" Naruto raged and got up, eyes burning with rage, ready to charge at the pale man.

Sakura held her hands to her bleeding wound, shaking, and used all the chakra she could spare to heal herself. He hadn't hit her heart, but the wound was still lethal. Orochimaru had punctured one of her lungs. She opened her eyes, resisting the urge to cough, and heard Orochimaru talking to her teammates. Still in a daze as a result of the pain, she sat up slowly, still hidden in the tall grass. Though the others were talking agitatedly, she couldn't quite register their words. But once she had healed herself enough to survive, at the very least, Sakura turned to look at Orochimaru again. He was facing away this time, too. She got to her feet and forced out the very last bit of her chakra, gathering it in her hands. It wasn't much, but it was enough for what she had in mind.

"Naruto-kun, why are you so upset? If you want to go with her, I'll just kill you t-" Orochimaru said, but his smirk was wiped off as his head suddenly jerked upwards, a loud crack resounding around the grass-covered clearing. His eyes showed shock and his mouth was left open as he fell down, his face betraying disbelief, and his voice no longer working. They wouldn't hear from him again. _Ever._

Behind his fallen body, Sakura was standing with her hands where Orochimarus neck had been some seconds ago. She had broken it. He'd made the mistake of thinking she was dead, and so he'd died himself. When she realized she'd taken his life, she let her arms fall, trembling vigorously.

* * *

Itachi had been watching, or _sensing_ the battle. He'd heard the dialogue, heard them talking about that girl being a medic-nin. _What luck._ Or so he'd thought at first, before Orochimaru stabbed her. Frankly, Itachi had thought she was a goner. After all, medic-nins were usually not the strongest of ninjas. But this medic-nin had healed herself. _And killed Orochimaru afterwards, when the man least expected it. _If _that _girl couldn't heal Kisame, the only one left would be Tsunade, the fifth Hokage. And that was, of course, out of the question.

Then there was the Kyuubi boy. If it weren't for Itachi's eyesight, Kisame's current state and the fact that Naruto was not the only one around, it would have been easy for Itachi to just walk in there and take the Kyuubi container.

Noticing that the girl was about to fall, Itachi made his move, giving a barely visible smirk at this find.

* * *

Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke stared at Sakura. An illusion? Kakashi and Sasuke both scanned the two persons with their Sharingan. It wasn't an illusion. Sakura had broken Orochimaru's neck.

Now he was dead.

Then she swayed, but hurriedly moved her feet apart to maintain her balance. With a pained expression, she started swaying even more and then fell backwards. Her fall was stopped as someone caught her from behind and scooped her up. Who was it? At first it looked like Sasuke. But his clothes were different.

Of course, Sasuke was the first to grasp the man's identity.

"Itachi!" Sasuke yelled, getting to his feet, still exhausted from the battle. Uchiha Itachi looked up at him, his face devoid of emotion. He was holding Sakura in his arms. For him, it would be much easier to carry her over his shoulder, except her wound might open that way. The female ninja couldn't heal it until she'd recovered her chakra – and her consciousness. Itachi might have chosen to battle the remaining team members, if it weren't for his eyesight and the fact that he was outnumbered.

"Follow me and she dies," he stated bluntly. "She is a disposable. I won't hesitate to kill her and have her replaced." His dark voice fully conveyed the threat. He was gone in a flash, Sakura along with him.

The rest of Team 7 was left behind, speechless.

* * *

Kisame was so delirious he didn't know what was real anymore. Was he in the windy factory with the black machines, or was he in the red forest after all? There were more Akatsuki members than he could remember, among them a badger. What the heck was a badger doing in Akatsuki anyway? It wasn't like it was going to make a difference in this war or something. The horned ninjas were going to lose either way, since the History Country wouldn't come to their aid. And when those guys had all lost their hair and those ghastly orange hats, Akatuski could finally get to the point. Kisame had never really liked the Akatsuki uniforms anyway. They repelled water, and turned green when he started breathing. It wasn't like they were expensive to make, not if he ate dinner and washed Samehada. Come to think of it, why didn't his sword heal him, anyway? Did it have something to do with that badger or the green uniforms, or was it the airy factory?

"What kind of hunting did he mean, anyway..." he garbled under his breath.

A long time passed, something like half a second or maybe a year, and then he heard something.

When he looked at the door, Itachi was there. Politely ignoring that both the door and Itachi seemed to be dancing, Kisame cleared his voice. And Itachi was holding something pink and black. Maybe the new uniform.

"Your hunting must've gone real bad," he slurred. "Must've, for you to bring back a uniform like _that._" The Uchiha remained quiet. Probably felt insulted, that guy. He was too touchy.

Itachi listened in wonder as Kisame mumbled something about wanting the green one instead, but soon lost his patience.

"I found you a medic. She is suitable for the task at hand, if I am to judge from the fact that she killed Orochimaru with one hit to the neck," Itachi said in a low voice, coming a bit closer. "Hold on until she wakes up. I'll make her patch you up."

Who? Orochimaru?

"He was a _she?_" _Whaddaya know. _He learned something new every day. Now, if someone could just explain to him who the heck that badger had bribed to get into Akatsuki...

* * *

Two days passed before the others were back in Konoha. Naruto and one of his Kage Bunshins carried the dead body of Orochimaru, which was wrapped in sheets covered in a number of seals. They didn't normally bring bodies back to Konoha, but Orochimaru was an exception. None of them had spoken as much as a word on the way. They had camped, switched guards and traveled without speaking, all the way to Konoha. Once they were back, they went straight to the hospital with Orochimaru's body.

A nurse approached them, looking at the wrapped Orochimaru, knowing that the shrouds covered a dead person.

"Can I ... help you?" she asked worriedly, gesturing to what they were carrying. She didn't know the identity of the body, after all, so the seals on it probably confused her.

"Is the Hokage here?" Kakashi asked, his voice sounding slightly strange after not using it for a while. The nurse pointed at a door down the hall and then stepped aside when the small group of people passed her. Maybe she thought they were carrying a teammate. And in an indirect sort of way, maybe they were. They walked to the door and went inside without even knocking.

"Hey, what do you think you're-" Tsunade stopped when she saw it was Team 7. And_..._

_A body...?_

"Who..." she asked, trailing off when she noticed Sakura was not among them. All color drained from her face when she saw their defeated expressions.

"It's Orochimaru," Kakashi explained. "Mission complete, one ANBU hunter-nin lost during actin. Sakura was the one who killed him." His voice was still hoarse. Tsunade stared at the wrapped body.

"Sakura is," Kakashi spoke, "Sakura was captured by Uchiha Itachi," Kakashi added, and Tsunade's head jerked up.

"_What__?_"

* * *

**RR**

Reviews will be used as leverage to further degrade Kisame's delusions.


	5. Half Traitor

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is a fan-made story! ;)

I'm all sentimental after reading your reviews...

* * *

Half Traitor

* * *

It only took Itachi a moment to blast another hole in the wall and turn it into a room that would suffice for the medic. In there he dumped some blankets and a pillow and hung up some black fabric as a makeshift door. Then he proceeded to leave the pink-haired ANBU member on the now covered floor, having a closer look since he hadn't had the time to do so before. She'd lost her mask and some of her gear, it would seem.

She was covered in mud and scratches from head to toe, even her face – the parts of her face he was able to see, anyway. Since she'd been fighting Orochimaru and all his snakes, Itachi removed her boots to check her ankles for snake bites, and sure enough, there were a few. None seemed to have produced a reaction, however. He assumed she's used – or perhaps_ made _– antidotes after being bitten. A few of her cuts seemed deeper than the others, though, from which fresh blood was still running.

Since a hurt medic might mean a _useless _medic, he sat down next to her and did some basic healing. Whereas he had difficulties doing precise healing when he couldn't see properly, simple injuries like hers posed no problem. Holding his hands above her, he let his warm chakra run through the air and merge with her body and her remaining chakra. It didn't take long before the small wounds were fully healed – he was even able to heal what remained of the stab wound. Afterwards he removed her kunai pouch and emptied it of all weapons. Although the kunais and small shurikens wouldn't help her much if she tried to escape, it was best to be on the safe side – especially when his eyes were this disagreeable. Lastly he he removed her protective vest and long gloves, including her arm protectors, and placed them by her boots.

Itachi quietly pulled back to the door and looked over his shoulder at the young woman. He couldn't really see her too well. The only things he could tell for sure was that she was an ANBU ninja from Konoha, whose hair happened to be pink – a boldly characteristic feature for a ninja. Her face was blurry to him and he wouldn't be able to make it out properly without having a look up close. As he found that wholly unnecessary, he turned to the door again and walked out.

She was here to heal Kisame.

Something told him that since she had tagged along with _that _team, she would gladly give her life if it meant destroying the most important weapon of Uchiha Itachi, a missing-nin of Konoha and the killer of the entire Uchiha clan. As such, having her heal his eyes was out of the question, even if he wanted ever so badly for his eyesight to improve.

* * *

The first thing Sakura felt when her eyes cracked open, was a strange sensation where all her wound had been. Barely daring to move at first, she tried remembering what had happened the last time she was conscious. Details of the fight resurfaced in her mind and she moved a hand to let it rest where she had been stabbed. The wound was healed. This confused her, as the only one able to fully heal such a wound was herself. Of course, the other medics back in Konoha were able to heal such wounds too, but she wasn't in the Konoha Hospital, right? The hospital had white walls, after all.

Here there was just a dark, rocky surface all around. She could barely see a thing. There seemed to be a dark cloth hanging in front of what might be the entrance of the room. A thin stripe of light could be seen beyond it.

_Was the fight just a dream? I didn't really get stabbed? Or is Kakashi much better at healing than I thought? Is Team 7 hiding?_

Sakura noticed her white ANBU vest next to her, as well as her shoes, gloves and arm protectors. That was right. There was a hole in the vest, right in the middle, and it was still bloody. It couldn't have been a dream, then. She sat up and tilted her shoulder to see her upper arm. Her ANBU tattoo was still there – she'd half hoped it had disappeared. It looked out of place. Knitting her eyebrows in concentration, she looked around. The room was cave-like, sure, but it was all dry. Instead of a bed there were blankets. Her medical equipment was in there, too, but her weapons weren't. It was difficult to see anything at all with so little light.

There was some sort of faint sound in the background, reminding vaguely of a distand, constant roar. _A waterfall?_

Just where was she? Sakura tried to remember what happened after she got hurt.

_"...Naruto-kun, why are you so upset? If you want to go with her, I'll just kill you t-" Orochimaru said, but his smirk was wiped off his face as his head suddenly jerked upwards in sync with a loud, sickening crack. Then he fell down, his face betraying disbelief even in death, his voice no longer sounding. They wouldn't hear from him again, ever._

Sakura had broken his neck.

Her eyes widened as she remembered and she moved a hand to cover her mouth. She had _killed_ him. Suddenly feeling alert, she looked around one more time. The fact that she had killed Orochimaru did _not _explain where she was now. It could be an Inn, albeit a weird one, or maybe Team 7 had made a makeshift hideout. Sakura remembered that someone had caught her from behind right before she fell. She'd caught a brief glance of his face over her shoulder before fainting.

_Red eyes... __Sasuke?_

Her brief smile was replaced by a somber expression as she thought about it. _No, he would never do something like that. _As much as she disliked the thought, Sasuke was the kind of person who – even if he _did _like her – would leave her to be caught by someone else. Naruto, for instance.

Just then, the fabric covering the door opening was pulled aside and light came flooding in. Although it was only a silhouette, she could immediately tell who it was. Never had her heart sunk quite so deep in her chest.

The cloak-clad silhouette had red eyes.

_Sharingan._

Struck by fear and rage all at the same time, she crawled backwards until her back hit the wall with a thud. Glaring Uchiha Itachi in the eyes despite knowing she shouldn't – after all, he was too dangerous _not _to pay attention too – she gritted her teeth.

"It-Ita-" she stammered, unable to move her eyes away from the dangerous man, despite knowing he could trap her in a genjutsu.

"Uchiha Itachi, yes," he cut her off, his voice monotonous. Sakura stared, now more terrified than she was angry. More light made it inside the room when he moved further into the room, making her able to see that the lower part of his face was hidden behind the collar of his Akatsuki robe. Trembling, she felt his powerful chakra pulse in the air. Not having much chakra left after Team 7's battle, there was nothing she could do. Instinctively she pushed her back harder into the wall, her hands balling into fists.

"You have been sleeping since yesterday," she heard him say, his voice deep and cold. He moved closer. "I heard you wake up," he added as an explanation as to why he came into the room as soon as he had. Sakura couldn't remember making a sound at all, which only served to further disturb her. Determined not to fall prey to the man's illusions, she moved her stare from his eyes to one of his shoulders, not knowing where else to look. She just hoped he hadn't already cast her into a genjutsu – if he had, it was frighteningly realistic.

"For your information, the kitchen is on the opposite side of your room. The bathroom is to the left of the kitchen," he said in a barely audible voice. Sakura knitted her eyes in confusion. "Do not try to escape. This hideout is shielded by a barrier. It can't be broken, nor be detected from the outside."

Still scared stiff, Sakura stared as he turned his back on her.

_He isn't going to kill me?_

No, he would've killed her already if that was his motive. Why was she here, anyway? To lure out the Kyuubi?

"And don't open any other doors than those that I just told you about," he finished. Then he just walked out, leaving the fabric 'door' open. Letting out the breath she had been holding, Sakura let her shoulders fall. Never before had she felt quite so helpless. Not even when they'd fought Orochimaru. She was lucky just to be alive, wasn't she? Was she being held here to lure out Naruto? Sakura frowned, hoping that wasn't the case. Itachi had mentioned an undetectable barrier, right? How was Itachi supposed to lure Naruto out when Team 7 couldn't even find out where she was? She moved one hand through her hair, trying to compose herself. Though she was healed, her clothes were still dirty and covered in dry blood, and as was she. She'd almost peed on herself just now.

_I need to get out of here. _Or for starters, she should at least get a look around.

Where did he say the bathroom was, again? To the left of the kitchen? Would she dare to go all the way there so soon? Frowning at her own cowardice, she got to her feet and stomped to the door. From there and on, though, her steps took on a wholly different nature – silent as a cat, she slinked through the door and across the cave-like hall. Hesitating a little before opening the door to the bathroom, she glanced around. Once she was inside and closed the door behind her, however, he breath caught again. The room was like a cave of its own. In the middle was a hot spring. From the spring, green and blue light illuminated the room. How that was possible she wasn't sure. It made her speculate whether Itachi already had her in a genjutsu.

_A hot spring inside a cave? _Was it artificial, or natural? Sakura took a closer look and noticed there was one small crack on each side of the spring. In one end the water came in, and through the other, the water left. Sakura bent down to the water and touched it. It was lukewarm. If what she suspected was right, the lights were powered by chakra. She let a tiny bit of her chakra flow into the water, which immediately resulted in stronger light. At the same time, the water became warmer. The room was powered by chakra? That wasn't normal, right? Or was Konoha just really old-fashioned? And to think she'd found _electricity _modern.

There were some towels in a small pile next to the door. Above the towels, on the wall behind them, there was a dusty mirror – a really old-looking one, with a frame of dark, worn wood. Cautiously, while eyeing the door, she began to undress, determined to be as fast as possible. For some reason she felt a lot safer in her 'own' room.

She went about her business as quick as she could, and since she didn't have any clean clothes, she put her dirty ANBU uniform back on with some distaste. At least her skin wasn't full of mud and dry blood anymore.

Back in the hallway the air was much colder. The autumn was harsh – maybe about to give way for winter, for all she knew. The sound of what she presumed was a waterfall was still there, but remained distant.

Next, she made her way to the kitchen, which – to her delight – was empty.

Ignoring the numerous sake bottles, she helped herself to some bread, an apple and a glass of water. From the cupboards she gathered various simple things to put on the bread, which she proceeded to roast with her chakra. Naruto had taught her that move long ago, before he left on a journey with Jiraya. Then she sidled to her room while balancing her meal in her arms.

* * *

Later the same evening, Itachi went to her room, soaked after having been outside in the rain. He knocked at the kunoichi's door – or more precisely, on the wall next to it. He heard fabrics rustle inside, and after a short break she spoke.

"Come in," she said, voice clearly hesitant. Not that it mattered – he would have walked inside whether she told him to or not.

Because as things were, Kisame couldn't wait any longer.

Once he got inside, he dropped a bag and an ANBU mask unceremoniously. They landed in a heap, surprising the pink-haired woman, who turned to him for an explanation. Like the first time she'd looked at him, she was quick to move her eyes from his activated Sharingan ones.

"I brought them here for you, from the battlefield," he explained, considering for a moment to remark that her friends must have left it behind – just like they'd left her with him, without making the slightest move to follow him. That had surprised him. He'd expected them to give chase. Thinking about it now, perhaps it was best not to speak of it in front of her.

"Thanks," the woman mumbled, still wary of him. "But why?"

"I need a favor," he said. He would cut right to the chase. "I need you to heal Kisame."

She looked at him in disbelief – he could see that much, even with his current eyesight.

"Me?" she asked, not sounding like she believed him. "But, I thought... You healed me, didn't you? Can't you heal him?"

Did she need him to spell it out?

"Yours was not a wound that required precision. You had already healed the most serious parts of the wound, so not much was left for me to improve upon. No damage to vital organs, arteries or bones," he said, walking a step closer, to her visible discomfort. "Kisame is another matter. I have kept him alive, that is all. As things are, I can do nothing more." When he was finished talking, she seemed to think it over for a while. Judging by her next words, she couldn't get everything to add up, however.

"But you're an Uchiha. I'll bet you've seen medics work their magic hundreds of times, or maybe even thousands," she said. She seemed to have calmed down somewhat – now she was wary rather than frightened. "Can't you copy them with a hundred percent precision and use their jutsus later?"

_No, because my eyesight is too poor for precision healing._

... As if he would reveal such a thing.

"I take it you will leave him to die, then?" he inquired, voice cold and slow. "Then I might add that when he goes, you follow."

That seemed to grab her attention. She was backing away, frowning and gritting her teeth. Her chakra was pulsing – what little chakra she had left, anyway.

"The alternative is better. Heal him, and we'll free you afterwards."

"How... How do I know you'll let me go?" she asked, trying to keep her calm.

"You seem like a smart one. Then you should also know of Konoha's regulations regarding missing-nins and how to treat them – or _not _treat them," he spoke. And already before he continued, realization seemed to dawn on her. "If you assist them in any way—and we can both understand that _healing _does count as assistance—you too are to be considered a threat to Konoha and will be treated as such."

"I..." she started, but then she turned speechless.

"And whereas I'm certain your good friends will stand up for you in such a case – whether they're proud to protect the deeds you've committed or not. But surely I wouldn't be mistaken to assume that there are more than just a few people in your village who _wouldn't _approve of you assisting a missing-nin."

"Then why in the world would I help you?" She sounded angry now – or bitter.

"Or else you die," he said simply. "If Kisame dies, you die. And of course I needn't remind you that if it comes to that, your death won't come quickly."

She slumped, giving a shaky sigh as she gritted her teeth in frustration – and fear, now.

"Let us try one more time: Once you heal Kisame, you are free to go. After that it is completely up to you whether or not you tell your friends in Konoha of what you did."

Both of them knew very well that as a ninja, she should choose death over healing an S-rank criminal any day. But she didn't want to stay here – or _die _here. And by surviving, she could even provide her friends with information about both Itachi and Kisame, even if that meant she'd be stamped as a traitor by the rest of the village for healing Kisame. She opened her mouth, only to close it again upon finding that the words were too hard to speak. But Itachi remained still, waiting for her answer.

If she said no, he would use other methods to get her to do it.

"I... I'll do it," she said in a whisper, detesting her words. But although she was unable to keep her eyes from filling with tears, she didn't let any of them fall.

"Good," he said, his voice still cold. "Then we will start in half an hour. We can't afford to wait any longer."

Unable to see her tears, Itachi turned to leave, pausing briefly at the door.

"What is your name?"

The question was out of place, but he wanted to know if her surname was that of a clan he might once have had ties with in the past. When she didn't speak, he chose to leave her alone. If she didn't want him to know, he'd just keep calling her 'you'. But once he'd left and was halfway to Kisame's door, her voice carried to him from her room, barely audible:

"Sakura."

Well, he didn't get to hear her family name, but at least it was better than nothing.

* * *

**RR**

Ka-boom~


	6. Heal

Disclaimer: I _really _don't own Naruto.

How the old version of this story felt like before I rewrote it:  
_'I are, you she he were, is it, we was, you there, hi they over here.'  
_

* * *

Heal

* * *

Before he showed her to Kisame's room, Sakura cleaned her hands and changed into a fresh set of clothes – her old pink ones. Thanks to Itachi bringing back her backpack, she also had all of her medical equipment at hand, which – according to the Uchiha – would be necessary if his teammate was to have any chance to survive at all.

And when she saw Kisame, she understood why.

"Grief..." she muttered, appalled.

The smell alone was enough to make her step back. Almost completely motionless save for his unevenly rising and falling chest, the once blue-skinned, now pale gray man growled and muttered curses under his breath, his voice too tired to properly convey his anger. His torso and shoulder was wrapped in bandages soaked red and dry brown, his eyes moving back and forth deliriously as he looked at places neither she, nor even Itachi could see. It wouldn't surprise her if his wound was completely infested, his flesh already dying or dead. It wouldn't even surprise her if he took his last breath the very next minute.

Glad she had just taken a bath – and that thanks to Itachi retrieving her backpack, she'd not only been able to change into fresh clothes, but had also been given access to the rest of her medical equipment – Sakura rushed forth, frowning deeply as she dropped her backback to the floor.

"If he's going to have a chance, you're going to have to help me," she stated as she put on inspection gloves and slipped on a surgery mask. Dreading what she might see, she started peeling off the bandages. "Can you get me sterile water and clean towels? Just boiling the water will work. And... And a bucket."

She didn't even wait for the Uchiha to reply before she let herself be completely immersed in the task at hand.

First she got off all the bandages, flinching at the stench and the view underneath. With a gash that deep – a gash that had nearly cut off Kisame's arm and a good portion of his ribs – she couldn't find any natural explanation as to why there was still life left in it – or in the rest of the man, for that matter. She wondered what sort of jutsu Itachi might have used. She'd seen nothing like this. Moving on, she poured her chakra into the now gray-skinned man, flinching briefly when she found it was absorbed more than twice as fast compared to when she was healing 'ordinary' patients. Gradually Sakura forced out pus and dead flesh with her chakra, holding her breath not to gag at the smell. When she glanced to her side, there was the bucket she'd asked for, as well as towels. She figured Itachi was in the middle of boiling the water, because he wasn't around. Somehow that made it easier to focus.

After tossing the wound discharge in the bucket, she did the same over again several times, discouraged to find even more every time. To add to that, her chakra was draining rapidly.

She kept at it for almost half an hour, pulling out dead or decaying flesh, liquids and substances until every nook of the wound was free of it. There was poison in there, too – that was probably the reason this wound didn't heal as fast as usual. Kisame's recovery rate was usually superhuman, according to what she'd heard. Unfortunately, after she'd rid the wound of what didn't belong there, Kisame wasn't left with enough tissue for her to start sewing it all together. When Itachi brought sterile water, she cleaned the wound again, then set to healing. So many things were in pieces – she patched arteries, veins, one of his lungs and his severed muscles, and set the broken ribs and the bones in his shoulder as best she could. He was already on the brink of death, so she left nothing to chance. Asking Itachi to lift the jutsus he'd cast on Kisame one by one, she set the fish-man up with her own jutsus – medical jutsus – before moving on. In places, she had to use jutsus to create artificial tissue. It would disappear in time, when Kisame's body started healing itself, but that didn't stop it from taking an awful lot of chakra. After healing, she put balms and salves where such things were necessary, and after that she could at last stitch and bandage the wound.

There would be a horrible scar over his shoulder and halfway down his torso when she removed the stitches, but she doubted he was the kind of man to worry about such a thing. Wiping her forehead, she turned briefly to see if Itachi was there.

He was.

"That's it," she said in a tired breath. "Is Kisame the kind who is likely to march off and use his arm even though he's injured?" She imagined he was.

"His recovery rate is superhuman. Cut off his head, and if he survives he'll still be careless until the wound heals," he replied. Sakura felt perturbed by the mental image. "I doubt this one exception will stop his recklessness."

"I... I see," she muttered, turning back to the blue – or, well, _gray _man. "I'll put a jutsu on his arm and all parts of his body affected by his wound, then. It'll keep him from using them." He still had his other arm, so he couldn't complain. Once the medical sealing jutsu was in place, Itachi lifted the jutsu he'd put on his teammate to keep him still in bed. The bigger man stirred, but didn't make a move to get up.

"I think he'll make it out fi-"

Before Sakura could finish that sentence, a gray arm shot out from behind her, locking around her neck. Only able to stand because she was holding him up – by her neck – Kisame looked around, every last bit of him making it obvious that he wasn't in his right mind. Like an angry drunkard, his eyes shifted from Sakura to Itachi. Growling angrily, he started swaying. Sakura was holding her breath, tightening her neck muscles to keep him from strangling her.

_So much for the great big 'thank you'. _Not that she'd expected any.  
_**Get off my back! **_Inner Sakura was shouting._ **Want a piece of this, huh?! ******__S_hannaro! Despite her bark, however, Sakura was out of chakra and couldn't do much.

"Sake..." came the rumbling voice of the fish-man.

"Ki-Kisame," she managed, looking to Itachi for help.

_Huh? _Looking to Itachi? For _help? _Apparently Kisame wasn't the only one out of his mind. Gritting her teeth, she tried to focus.

"Shaaa!" she fumed, cheeks red of embarrassment at her previous thought, sending the very last drops of her chakra to her fingers as she let them tighten around the gray arm that so obstructed her breathing. When he let go, she whirled around and punched him right in the middle of his face, anti_-Naruto-hug _style. Kisame went out like a light, falling convenietly into his bed again.

She turned around quickly, afraid Itachi was ready to kill her for what she'd just done.

"He'll be fine!" she blurted. "The punch won't affect the wound, really!" But Itachi didn't look angry. He didn't look happy either, sure, but there wasn't a shred of killing intent from him.

Which was a good thing.

He looked from her to his teammate.

"Excuse me," she said in an apologetic, barely audible voice. "Um, you said I was to be set free after healing Kisame, right? So, ah, how should I put this? Even though I used the very last bit of my chakra in that punch, I'll..." She swayed, staying on her feet only with willpower alone. "I'll just... Just hurry and get going, so... You know..."

_I'm going to lose my consciousness...  
_**Oh, no, you don't! **Inner Sakura chimed. **Hey!**

With a huge effort, she put one foot in front of the other and started shuffling out of the room. In the corner of an eye she saw Itachi leave as well, to see where she was going. Once she got to her room, she hauled her most necessary gear up from the floor – her pouch and her ANBU mask. Ready to go, she turned around. _A little too fast. _

And so she tumbled over, straight into the makeshift bed of blankets.

* * *

When she came to, she was still wearing her pouch, and her mask was still in her hand, or close to it. Her head felt heavy, like she'd slept in for a few too many hours. Making her way to her feet, she groggily staggered to the hallway. She needed to go to the bathroom, but not desperately – there was no way she'd stay here any longer than necessary. Shaking her head, once again wondering how long she'd been asleep, and what time of day it was, Sakura looked around.

The rocky hallway was empty, save for the doors, all of different shapes.

Masking her chakra, she made for the exit as quietly as she could. There were seven doors. One seemingly made recently, since it had no actual _door – _that one lead to her room. Then there was the kitchen, the bathroom and Kisame's room... She guessed Itachi had a room as well. The last two doors were a mystery, though. Maybe a meeting room? And a torture chamber? The thought made her increase her pace.

It didn't take long before she was at the exit – the waterfall thundered in front of her.

_But Itachi, he mentioned something about a barrier..._

She couldn't sense any such thing in the immediate vicinity. Outside, though, there was definitely a force worthy of the name – no doubt a barrier formed by a skilled ninja. Hopefully she'd find a way through, whether by forcing one, or by waiting until Kisame or Itachi left or returned through the barrier, because then they had to temporarily lift it, right?

Just then, the coldest chill bolted up her spine. Turning around, she saw Itachi a distance behind her, motionless.

In a moment of panic, she charged forward and jumped through the waterfall.

Or _into _the waterfall. It was stronger than she'd thought, by far. Before she knew it, she was swallowed into the cold dephts beneath the waterfall and brought deep beneath the surface by the unyielding currents. The pressure alone threatened to crush her very skull, that was how it felt. Already out of air, Sakura tried to keep calm until she stopped spinning along with the currents. Catching a glimpse of the bottom of the river – rocky and pointy – she made her way down towards it. Gathering what she could of chakra to her legs and feet, she pushed herself up. Once she broke the surface, she inhaled sharply before she was blinded by the sun above.

Then, to her horror, she realized there wasn't just _one _waterfall – she was in a cove full of them.

No sooner had she come to the conclusion than she was pulled under by the numerous currents again. All she could see was black and dark blue hues, speckled by white bubbles. Remembering that Itachi might also be around somewhere, and feeling her lungs screech for more oxygen, Sakura started panicking. She flailed her chakra-infused arms in vain, unable even to tell up from down. Almost getting stabbed by a pointy rock standing up from what she assumed was the bottom, she swirled around one time too much and was led by the currents into a wall of stone.

_Cha... Chance!_

Holding onto the cliff for dear life, with all the chakra she could muster, she located the glittering surface above and made for it, climbing up from the freezing water and into wind that was, if possible, even colder. She climbed until she got to the top, where she caught a brief glimpse of a big river – the source of all the waterfalls below. By some miracle she still had all her gear. On her knees, coughing up water and shaking in the low temperature, she tried regaining her composure.

Itachi chose that moment to step before her.

It surprised her so much that when she jumped to her feet, she took a step back – one step too much. "No-!" Before she knew it, she crashed into the violent currents again, back first.

And just as she prepared to start swimming, an excruciating pain filled her entire body, numbing her from head to toe. She caught a glimpse of something that flashed like chakra, and immediately remembered it.

_The barrier._

She'd crashed straight into it. And now she was being churned against it by all the force of the currents made by the waterfalls behind her. Almost giving in for a moment, she realized she still had more chakra left. _I really must have slept in. _And with all the chakra she could concentrate into her fists and arms, all the force she could muster, she gave the barrier the most solid punch it had ever seen. And for a moment it seemed to work – the barrier rippled visibly, turning unstable before her eyes, but then it strengthened again. And as much as she would have liked to try again, she was out of chakra – and of oxygen.

Only able to flail when she was pushed deeper into the river by the currents – or perhaps the reason it was getting darker around her was something else – Sakura watched with strange fascination as her vision blurred.

She could have sworn she saw a silhouette...

* * *

Later the same day, Itachi walked down the hallway from Kisame's room. Glancing to the young medic's room – named Sakura, if his memory served him right – he remembered the ruckus she'd caused earlier that day.

The mere act of jumping through the waterfall at the entrance was a death sentence. She was pulled under, yet she had made it up. He had surprised her so much she fell right back in, however. Thinking she was a goner, Itachi had observed the river until the entire barrier around their hideout all but rippled out of existence. That had convinced him she was worth keeping around for a bit longer.

Only for Kisame's sake, however.

_Not for my eyes, _he told himself.

But the young ninja had not been quite as thankful as he had hoped she would be. Now cooped up in her room, wrapped in her blankets, she didn't spare him a word. He only got expressions – frowns, both angry and wary. She hadn't taken it well when he brought her back into the base. At least she had quieted down after he eloquently inquired as to where on earth she'd left her medic's honor, since she was able to leave Kisame so easily.

* * *

Glancing into the hallway, wearing only the blankets in her room, Sakura readied to sprint to the bathroom. The clothes she'd worn in the fight against Orochimaru were still dirty, and the rest of her clothes were soaked from her not-so-amusing swim earlier. She'd caught a glimpse of a tub with a washboard in the bathroom earlier, so she wanted to clean everything.

_The coast is clear._

And so she shuffled, holding her blankets in place with one arm and the dirty garments under the other. When she got to the door she glanced around again, pretty sure the hallway was still empty.

Only it wasn't.

"Eh – Itachi-_san!_" she blurted, raging as her cheeks turned rosey. Where that suffix had come from she had no idea. Maybe a semi-conscious attempt to make him listen to her. "Don't _look!_" And before he could as much as blink, she was behind the locked bathroom door.

_Safe._

Angrier than before, cheeks dark red with shame, she set to washing her clothes. As she sat there in front of the small tub, she let her thoughts wander to distract herself.

_I wonder if Kisame and Itachi wash their own clothes..._

In her mind, she formed a mental picture in which the two Akatsuki members were washing their cloaks, wearing aprons on top of their clothes that were mysteriously similar to the one her mother had used when Sakura was a kid. Sakura chuckled. How did they dry the garments, then? Did they leave them hanging over a chair, or did they use chakra, like she had learned to? Did Kisame wash his clothes at all? For all she knew, he only took an occasional bath in the river outside, with his clothes on. If he was as careless as Itachi let on, Sakura doubted he used soap. And if he tried to dry his clothes with his powerful chakra, did the clothes happen to catch fire? Sakura let out a small laugh, the first one in ages.

When she went back to her room – fully dressed now – she glanced at the other doors in the hallway again. What hid behind those two last doors?

_Could it really be __a meeting room? And... a torture room?  
__**Ew! No! I bet it's just another bathroom, it has to be! **_Inner Sakura reasoned. _**Or a library or something!**_

Sakura wasn't so sure.

At the lack of anything better to do, she knocked at Kisame's door and peeked in. _No one there, except Kisame. _And he seemed to be fast asleep.

Not wanting to wake him up just for the sake of checking the wound and the stiches, she marched on to the kitchen. Elated to find it empty, she ignored all the sake bottles and went for the refrigerator. As soon as she had downed a decent meal, she returned to her room, which she was a little tempted to a _cell _by now. There, she sat down and waited.

It wasn't like she could do much else.

* * *

**RR**  
Maaan~


	7. Akatsuki

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto. How much does it cost to buy the rights, though...?

I _like_ you, peoples!

* * *

Akatsuki

* * *

This sort of tense boredom was the worst.

Even at night, she couldn't relax. Her dreams were full of Naruto's face, screaming as he reached for her. Flashes of Konoha, of her friends there, memories of Team 7, and her feelings for Sasuke... When she woke up, she was more tired than she'd been before falling sleeping. At least it didn't take long before something interesting happened.

When she left her room, Kisame was standing in the hallway.

His feet and upper body were bare, save for all the bandages, of course. He looked lost – at least until he saw her.

"Haaah?" he uttered, staring her down. "A kunoichi? Aren't you the one from Konoha?"

She didn't know what to say. Should she just be honest? He took a few steps closer, eyes not very focused.

"What're you doing in here, little kunoichi?" he pried, lowering his head as he approached, getting too close for her comfort. "Did Itachi bring you? Why? To have some_ fun?_"

Sakura snapped.

"_Fun? _I healed your wound, you stupid mutt!" she exclaimed before thinking. But when Haruno Sakura snapped, she snapped properly, and so she couldn't leave things as half-baked as this. Besides, there was a limit to how much frustration a locked-up girl could take. And so, when Kisame also snapped, and pushed her to the wall with his healthy arm to her throat, she couldn't hold it in. Despite her currently limited access to oxygen, she was going to give him an earful. "You think I'm afraid of you? I... I save your life, and, and you thank me by strangling me, huh?!" Kisame seemed unaffected, save for the fact that his grip around her throat tightened. He was grinning. Sakura barely had any air left. "You want a piece of this, old man?!" she managed, waving a chakra-loaded fist.

"Save it, you two."

As if by a complete mystery, or a magical forbidden jutsu, both of them stopped. Kisame let her go and the both of them faced Itachi without a word, like ashamed kids. The Uchiha had their full intention. When Sakura tried searching for any jutsu that might be at fault for this strange feeling of indisputable leadership emanating from him, she could detect nothing. It seemed to come naturally for him. He was an Uchiha, after all. If she added Kisame's temper and herself into the mix, it sort of made her angry how the three of them could so easily be compared to Team 7.

"Take it outside."

And apparently he meant it, because five minutes later they were out.

As in on the other side of all those waterfalls, on the plateau she'd fallen from. They were standing a distance away from the big, branching river over the hideout, yet inside the barrier. She could barely see it, in the shape of a thin bubble-like membrane. She knew it was stronger than it looked. Chances were it was invisible from the outside. The landscape was awfully rocky, with a great many trees sticking up from the rubble here and there. Itachi had used some sort of jutsu to part the waterfall earlier, when they were leaving – not a water jutsu, but it had worked well nonetheless. The mercilessly thundering water had parted for them, just like that.

"Um, Itachi-san," Sakura started, feeling uncomfortable when she spoke the suffix. It felt unnatural, yet it wouldn't do to call the Uchiha by his name only – especially not when she'd been an object of some annoyance just a few moments prior. "What're we doing here?"

"Letting out steam," came his instantaneous reply. Then, looking between Kisame and herself, "Get to it."

Sakura frowned. _Like I'll show them my skills just li-_

But she spoke too soon, apparently, becuase before she knew it, a blue, chakra-loaded fist came into vision. It was all she could do to jump back. Kisame, despite only having one arm and no sword – or cloak, for that matter, was grinning incredulously, elated at this opportunity.

"_Hey! _I–" Sakura spoke between a punch and a kick from the man. "I'm not gonna–... Hey, wait just a minute–!"

"**Haa!**" roared the man, putting more effort into each move. Sakura dodged as best she could, sending blaming glares at the utterly unaffected Uchiha in between ever block.

"You asked me to heal this guy, right?!" she shouted, loading her arms with chakra to keep Kisame's attacks from connecting and hurting her. "Well, by the looks of it, he's healing just fine now!" She suspected it had something to do with the poison she'd pulled out. Now that the wound was poison-free, it wouldn't surprise her if someone like Kisame had already healed almost completely.

"So let me go!" Sakura continued.

"Not taking me seriously, huh?!" Kisame said, grinning as he jumped back and started forming hand seals. At first Sakura braced herself for the jutsu that was no doubt to come. Then she remembered the enormous river.

_Kisame... Kisame is a water-jutsu user._

At that thought, she was tempted to give a hollow laugh, but resisted. She couldn't stop her mouth from twitching and her face from stiffening, though.

_You're kidding me._

Behind the man, whose rippling, azure muscles hummed with chakra, the enormous river seemed to come to life. The thundering water rose slowly, foaming around the edges and coiling around itself. Leaving only puddles left on the riverbed, the giant mass of water – glittering in the sun – moved towards them.

_You've _**got** _to be kidding me._

"Ehehe..." Turns out the hollow laugh made it out after all.

_But hold on just a minute. _He wasn't the only one capable of a feat when it came to using masses of the nature. There was plenty of ground and stone here, just like anywhere else. And by the looks of this deserted place, nobody lived anywhere close – apart from these two guys, of course. Itachi had told her to let go of some steam, right? And even if he hadn't, she was entitled to protect herself if she was attacked. And even if they saw her attack, it wasn't like they were seeing a secret jutsu. Chakra precision wasn't something that one could easily copy.

So maybe now was the moment to teach them not to mess with the wrong apprentice. _Tsunade-sama style..._

"_Shaaaa!_" she shouted as she crashed her fist into the ground, splitting it almost instantly into hundreds of pointy boulders. She kept her chakra coming until the terrain shifted, some land moving up, the rest sliding down. Standing atop one of the rising boulders, she punched the mass of earth again, causing a shower of mud and stones. Burning with concentration as she targeted Kisame, she punched the smaller stones as they fell from above, using them as projectiles. Using the water as a shield instead of a weapon, the fish-man effectively blocked her attacks.

But she quickly responded by using one of the simplest jutsus she knew – the replacement jutsu.

Before he knew it, she'd switched places with one of the stones closest to him, and before he could engulf the both of them in the giant mass of water circling him, Sakura smashed her fist into the ground yet again, causing the bandaged man to lose his balance. As a result, all the water rammed into the ground, leaving them under water for a few long seconds before the water found its way back to the riverbed. The second she was free, she charged Kisame with another loaded fist. He evaded and made for her neck, but she wouldn't let him catch her like that again, and circled around him, thick drops of water flying off her as she did. A bare, blue foot flew up, aimed at her face, but she ducked and sent a kick of her own towards his ankle.

The kick connected, sending him hurtling for the ground. He might have been able to use his hand to just push himself up right away, had it not been for the fact that his entire arm and half his torso was constricted by the bandages. Instead, he landed with a heavy splash, kicking one of her ankles when she was in the middle of getting up.

"Auff!"

The next thing she saw was a great big, blue shadow blocking out the sun. Kisame reached for her neck, but she snaked one of her legs in between them and planted her foot in his stomach, sending him flying into the air. She got up, breathing heavily, ignoring the sticky mud on her back. Just as she was about to give chase, the third person of their group spoke up.

"I trust that's enough," said Itachi.

For the second time that day, it was as if he broke a spell – or _made _a spell – by just talking. Kisame got up, grunting something about Samehada, his sword, and nasty little kunoichis. Warily, Sakura looked from the fish-man to Itachi.

"Eh," she muttered, eyes widening.

He was bleeding. The cut on his cheek seemed like it may have been left there by one of the rocks she'd sent flying earlier. And the arm of his cloak was torn, too.

_That doesn't make any sense._

She hadn't aimed any of her attacks at him. Sure, a few stray rocks no doubt went his way, but those were slow rocks, and should be easy to evade. Especially for an Uchiha.

* * *

Itachi observed in annoyance as the medic and Kisame approached, the former's wariness obvious even when he couldn't see her face properly. His blurred sight was a problem, there was no question about it.

"How," she started. "Why are you bleeding?"

Kisame joined in, too. "What, you hauled in a medic for me, but don't find 'eh good enough to use for yerself?" he guffawed. "How _compassionate! _Or is it that you wanted to test her on me first?"

"Hardly," Itachi replied. If he reveals the state of my eyes to her..

"Is something wrong?" the pink-haired one asked, confused, judging by her voice. "Are you sick or something?"

"No."

"Yeah, it's his eyes."

Itachi gave a slow, murderous glare, making Kisame step back while holding up his healthy arm in defense. "Hey, now! You helped me, and now I wanna return the favor! That's all!"

"I don't need help from someone like that." He noticed the woman shift, but ignored it. "I'm doing fine."

"Hey–" the kunoichi started.

"Is that a fact," muttered his blue-skinned teammate as he suddenly kicked at the ground, sending a rock flying straight for Itachi's face. Even when Itachi knew it was coming, it was so hard to see that he only barely managed to evade it.

"Kisame," Itachi said, his voice slow and seething with withheld anger as he looked at the man. "If you want an early death, you need only speak the word." The threat wasn't wasted on the fish-man, who shut up and turned away. The medic, on the other hand...

"Is it your eyes?" she asked, her interest blatant.

At which he gave a long sigh. For an uncomfortable moment, none of them said a word.

"Kunoichi," he said.

"Sakura," she corrected.

"_Kunoichi,_" he said again. "You would have been better off not asking that – not knowing of it at all."

_Now letting her go is no longer an alternative._

She knew his secret. He couldn't let her go while there was still a chance she would tell her troublesome friends about it. And she wasn't stupid – she already knew what he was thinking, judging by her stance. She was getting ready to protect herself, if he and Kisame decided to silence her.

"Why don't we go inside?" he suggested, voice light, the underlying message heavy and black. _  
_

Luckily for all of them, she was smart enough to know she'd lose if she fought them both, yet naïve enough to follow without struggling. _She isn't getting out again._

Not for the rest of her life.

* * *

_Curse my big mouth. Curse Kisame. Curse my temper... And Itachi's eyes._

Thanks to those things, she was going to be stuck in this blasted cave for the rest of history. Thanks to her finding out about Itachi's eyes, her rights to walk around as she pleased had shrunk considerably. Now she wasn't even allowed to go to the kitchen. They left food at her door instead. She was allowed to walk in the hall, as long as she didn't open any doors or tried to leave through the waterfall. Not that she was stupid enough to do either. They'd even taken her gear, all of it. _Even my bag, with my toiletries in it._ Sitting in her room, her mouth twitching and her veins popping, Sakura fumed. The only belongings she had left were the clothes she was wearing: her old pink ones.

Itachi Uchiha had presented her with some alternatives.

_Alternative one: Wait here until Kisame and Itachi left on their next long mission, leaving her here to starve, or be burnt to a crisp trying to get through the barrier. _No thanks, she'd rather die a quick death free of pain.

_Alternative two: Pretend to agree to heal Itachi's eyes, then try to worsen their state instead, then be found out instantly and get killed on the spot. _Why would he even think she'd do something stupid like that? He'd kill her before she even tried.

_Alternative three: Heal Itachi's eyes fully, then see what happens after. _Such elaborate details.

_Alternative four: Try to escape through the waterfall again, fail, drown, or survive long enough to get killed._ No thanks.

The way she saw it, the third option was the only option. All the others ended with certain death. But how could she be sure Itachi wouldn't kill her off after she healed his eyes? Chances were that was exactly what he was planning. Healing Kisame and healing Uchiha Itachi were two entirely different things. Sasuke would never forgive her – as a matter of fact, if she healed Itachi now, she'd make Sasuke's chances of victory a whole lot slimmer. She might indirectly become the cause of his death. She was already imagining Sasuke's face – how he'd look when he found out what she'd done.

And so her mind was made up.

"I will never help you," she said when Itachi came to hear her answer, her determination rock solid.

Something changed in his eyes just then.

"I take it you are close to your team? The team that I watched defeat Orochimaru?" he said, throwing her off a little. She had a bad feeling, but didn't say anything. "For them to get so upset when that Orochimaru hurt you, I'm sure you must have spent some time together, you and your team."

She just frowned at him, gritting her teeth. What was he getting at?

"Tell me," he said, weighing his words. "If you die, they will know I was the one who did it, will they not? They will come for me, am I not right? Before that happens I will aready have procured another medic capable of healing these eyes. By the time they find me, my eyesight will be better yet than it was before I awakened my Sharingan."

Sakura's eyes flickered for a minute as she pondered whether it really was that easy for him to find a medic that good, but if he said it with such confidence, then she couldn't afford to exclude the possibility.

"When they find me, I will do to them what they want to do to me," he said, voice cold and even as his eyes started glowing red. "No, even with my eyes are _not _healed, killing them will be easy if I just throw them off balance first. See, with these eyes, all I need is to show them how horribly I tortured you; how slowly I killed you. I will fill their hearts with–"

"Shut up," she muttered, barely audible even to herself.

"Fill their hearts with hatred," he continued, unfazed.

"Shut up," she repeated, still not loud enough.

"Hatred, blacker than they've ever experienced before, heavier than they knew their hearts could stand."

"Just shut up!" she shouted, the futility blatant.

_If i heal him, he'll be strong enough to kill the others. If I don't heal him, he'll find someone else to heal him and kill them anyway. _It was a lose-lose situation.

_No._

As much as she hated to admit it, if she healed his eyes, she might at the very least live to tell the tale. And then Itachi wouldn't have any images to show Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi of how he'd killed her. If he tried procuring any, they would know they weren't real. Furthermore she could tell her team everything she'd found out about the oldest Uchiha and his eyes. Of course, there was no guarantee Itachi would let her live after healing his eyes. But if she refused, then she had _no _chance of survival, and then he'd kill her off slowly and show Team 7 every last little detail later. And then they'd go on a rampage, too angry to care whether they got hurt in the process. They might not even pay enough attention to know whether they attacked an illusion or the real Itachi.

How she hated being manipulated like this.

"You really are the worst," she muttered, fists clenched.

"You would really say such a thing about the older brother of one of your teammates?" he asked, tone as even as before.

And her face must have come off as just a little bit too shocked, and her intake of air a little too sharp, because suddenly his eyes narrowed. Feeling caught in the act where she sat, looking up at the far stronger man, an embarrased, out-of-place blush crept across her face. If he found out she liked Sasuke...

"Oh? You know Sasuke well?" he inquired. For the first time, his tone changed. He sounded almost amused.

_Not a good sign._

"He's been my teammate for years, of course I know him," she retorted, only getting angrier when she felt her blush extend to her ears. It made her wonder just how clearly he could see her face.

"There is nothing more to it than that? You are only teammates?" he asked. "It didn't looke that way to me when I stole you away from the battlefield. My brother was positively murderous when he noticed me, as per usual, but he stayed a lot more still than I had expected him to, when I threatened to kill you if they were to follow me, am I right?"

Sakura frowned, looking down to hide at least part of her face as her flushed face reached new levels of rosey illumination. She couldn't even remember anything from after the fight with Orochimaru, but Itachi's words still made her react like that. How was she supposed to know if his words were even true?

For a long moment she remained quiet, waiting for him to continue.

When he didn't, she looked up, frightened to find that his eyes were wider than they'd been a minute prior.

"Ah, I remember now," he said. "Pink hair... You must be _that _Haruno Sakura."

Chills bolted up her spine as he said it, and she ransacked her mind to remember if she'd ever told him her _full _name, ever.

"Sasuke told me all about you," he said, cocking his head just a little. "When you were both small, that is."

She stared, and could do nothing when his eyes started swirling, welcoming her into a genjutsu she wouldn't soon forget.

"Let me show you."

* * *

**RR**

He's always one step ahead~


	8. Eyes

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.  
Yu too kind~

* * *

Eyes

* * *

"Get ready," muttered the Uchiha as gravity shifted and she was pulled into the most dreadfully realistic illusion she had ever experienced. The genjutsu had all of her senses covered – the temperature was that of a late summer evening, the fading sunlight warm on her skin. The area smelled strongly of grass and trees, to the point where she could almost taste it. The sounds, though coming from far away, were eerily alike to that of Konoha in the early evening. She was standing next to a path by the forest training grounds, and before her were two Uchihas, younger by far than their present selves.

Uchiha Itachi and Sasuke.

On edge, Sakura was torn between looking at them and trying to escape from the genjutsu. The decision was made for her when she saw what Sasuke carried.

A letter.

_That color... Don't tell me..._

"What, you got another one, Sasuke?" asked the young Itachi as he walked alongside his little brother. It felt absurd that he should look and sound so kind – so sincere.

The young Sasuke huffed in annoyance, turning away as made an angry pout. "It's just a letter."

Sakura was frozen.

"Let me see," said the young Itachi, grabbing the letter with a smile before Sasuke could stop him.

"Hey!" complained the younger Uchiha, walking faster beside his brother. "Give it back!"

_I wrote that letter. Sasuke got it from me._

"Don't tell me," said Itachi. "A love interest? Do you have time for something like that?" His tone was playful, like that of any older brother.

"Of course I don't! That's stupid!" exclaimed the younger one, reaching for the letter, more annoyed by the minute. "I'm gonna throw it away somewhere no one can find it!"

Sakura frowned a little. Still, it wasn't like she was surprised. Even back when she gave it to him, that letter, Sasuke hadn't exactly looked overjoyed. And that just added to the realistic touch of the illusion. But she had to be careful – whereas parts of this illusion was based on real happenings, there might still be things that Itachi was making up.

"Who is it from?" Itachi asked, smiling as he stopped and returned the letter to his little brother.

"She's nobody important," said the small Sasuke matter-of-factly, coming to a halt as well. Sakura was torn between smiling at his expression and feeling sad at his words. "She has pink hair. That's no good for a ninja. Ninjas are supposed to be able to hide well, after all."

That sparked a familiar annoyance in her, but she remained quiet. It appeared that although she could see them, they couldn't see her. She was just a spectator.

"Pink hair? That's an oddity," said Itachi. "Is she from a clan?"

"No," said Sasuke. "She's Haruno Sakura. She doesn't care about being a ninja at all."

Sakura felt the corner of her mouth twitch. Hearing him speak such words would have broken her heart if they were spoken by the present Sasuke, but coming from the young one, they only served to irk her. Had he really said those things? And how did showing this help the present Itachi, anyway?

"Do you like her?" Itachi asked while starting to walk again, once again aiming to pique his little brother.

"I dunno," said Sasuke, falling into his older brother's pace. His cheeks weren't even a light shade of red, earning him a quiet laugh from his older brother – which only served to throw Sakura further out into confusion.

_How did a man like that end up a killing machine? How did he end up responsible for the death of his entire clan? _He didn't look like he was faking it. His _eyes _didn't even look like they were faking it. Not only that; Sasuke was being himself, too – caring about being a ninja more than he cared about girls.

"Maybe the way you look at her will change," suggested Itachi playfully, to little Sasuke's great annoyance.

"I won't fall for something like love. Never," he said, frowning seriously as he marched on. "I only want to be strong." Somehow, Sakura wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, even in the present.

"How strong?" asked Itachi, smiling at his little brother, who smiled back confidently now that the subject had changed to something he knew better.

"Stronger than you, big brother!" he declared.

And it sounded so final that for a moment, Sakura couldn't imagine his view ever changing. Even in the present, what remained most important to Sasuke was revenge. He had as little time for love as he'd had as a little boy – maybe even less. From what she'd seen and heard, not a day passed without Sasuke training. Even on the way to their mission to kill Orochimaru, Sasuke had taken his time to hone his skills.

_Furthermore, every time Sasuke looks at me, there are no signs in his eyes that imply he would ever start liking me the way I like him._

She'd known it all along, but she'd never had anyone spell it out for her, not this clearly. It probably wasn't even Itachi's intention – as far as she could tell, he only wanted to throw her into confusion. Which he'd managed just fine with everything he'd done so far.

Slowly, the illusion started to fade.

"Putting aside whatever may have been the case back then," she started as her makeshift room came into view, "Sasuke views me as his teammate, or, at most, a friend," she said, voice quiet. Itachi was towering above her, closer than before. "My feelings won't change that."

* * *

So she did still harbor affection for Sasuke. It was impressive for such feelings to last that long, especially when faced with such undisguised indifference. Itachi looked down at her form, blurred by his eyes. She was looking away.

Even if Sasuke didn't feel the same way about her, she wouldn't want him to be in danger, if Itachi's calculations were right. So if healing Itachi's eyes meant she might live to tell Sasuke, or if it meant preventing Itachi from enraging Team 7 by showing them in detail how he'd killed her, then she had no choice but to help him and stay alive.

"I take it you will heal my eyes, then?" he inquired.

A very long moment passed before she replied and when she did, her voice had lost unexpectedly much of its luster.

"I will."

* * *

At twelve o'clock sharp the next day, Itachi knocked at her door – or door frame – and came inside.

Sakura pointed Itachi towards the only chair in the room which had been given her the evening before without an explanation. All of her belongings were on the floor, including her medical gear, which was all laid out neatly, ready to be used if needed. She hadn't asked why they couldn't use a different room, assuming the Uchiha didn't want her to know about the contents of any of the other rooms. An alternative was to heal him in the kitchen, but she figured it was a little too dirty in there. Her room was lit by a small lamp – also brought to her the evening before – which she'd loaded with her own chakra.

In the blink of an eye, he moved from the door to the chair and had a seat. He didn't wear his robe, probably because the high collar might get in her way. Instead he was wearing a sleeveless black shirt with a mesh around the neck. Sakura wore a clean set of black ANBU clothes. She didn't wear the gloves and arm-protectors, though, nor the white vest – there was no use for that. Her ANBU-tattoo showed on her arm.

"Then, I'll start by checking the condition of your eyes, Itachi-san," she said, inwardly cringing at having to use a suffix. He only nodded. Walking behind the chair, Sakura put her fingers at his temples. Her chakra started flowing into his eyes slowly, cooling them down. He blinked. Having another chakra in his eyes probably felt uncomfortable, especially for someone like Itachi. In addition – and this surprised her – his chakra felt warm against her own, rather than cold. It made her wonder if all Uchihas were the same.

_Perhaps Sasuke, too?_

"Can you turn off your Sharingan?" she asked. This he seemed to like even less, because some long seconds passed before obliged. No wonder, if his sight was bad. Some long minutes went by as Sakura continued letting her chakra navigate through his chakra channels. No corner of his eyes remained hidden from her. She scanned the lense part of his eyes, the retinas and optic nerves, the irises, the tiny muscles, too. She searched for any sign that might imply his blurred sight was caused by bleedings, disported parts of his eyes, or just pure stress on his eyes.

"Have you tried healing your eyes yourself, Itachi-san?" she asked carefully, forcing herself to get used to the honorific. It felt like she was sucking up to him, but she needed him to be agreeable, lest she make a mistake that would become the end of her.

_Anything to survive._

"Yes. It worked in the beginning, but the effects wore off after a few times," he replied quietly, unwilling to tell her all there was to know.

"I see... Your eyes may have become immune to your chakra if you've tried healing them a lot. And from what I can see, your chakra is fit for aggressive moves, not medical ones." She wouldn't like to be on the receiving hand of a fire jutsu made with the scorching chakra Itachi was in possession of. "Couldn't you ask Kisame to heal them? You could teach him how to heal. He could probably use it on himself, too," Sakura suggested, still not liking the idea of healing Itachi on her own. He turned his head over his shoulder and looked at her, causing her to stop her chakra flow. Judging from her examination so far, all he should be able to see was a blur. He couldn't see her face properly at all. Maybe that was a good thing.

"Kisame doesn't know healing jutsus, and hasn't the patience to learn any, either. He just attacks, and could care less about his wounds," he said, looking at her with stone cold eyes that reminded her too much of Sasuke's. "In Kisame's eyes, a man's pain should only be eliminated by sake." Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch, recalling more than one occasion on which Naruto had gotten seriously wounded, only to opt for ramen instead of medicine.

"You don't say," she mumbled, then regained herself. "I'll write down what I've found out, Itachi-san. And then I'll let you know when I've charted the damage enough to heal it."

"All right," he said as he rose to his feet, back strong and shoulders wider yet than Sasuke's. It surprised her a bit. Next to Kisame he was short, but up close, he was even a taller than Sasuke. "I trust you with the task at hand, Sakura," he muttered as he turned to her. She looked at him, again meeting his dark eyes. They were faded and colorless, like onyx pools shrouded in mist. An unintentional illusion of those of his younger brother. Sasuke's eyes had always fascinated her, black and clear and bottomless, but Itachi's were – although she would never admit it aloud – also beautiful.

_In a murderous sort of way._

Sakura quickly looked away, frowning angrily at herself as a light blush colored her cheeks. Itachi, unaware of her blush, turned around slowly and left with no other words.

* * *

The next morning, Itachi showed her another one of the seven rooms: The common room.

He only showed it to her to make it easier for her to write and read the data she'd collected on his eyes. A couple of times he walked up behind her and read what she'd written, making her feel uneasy. She told him she'd leave the data behind and try to forget all of it after she was done healing him – she even proposed to burn all of it if doing so would help her case, but the Uchiha remained unreadable. Despite the bookshelves, the slightly more comfortable chairs, the big table and a very primitive, yet warm fireplace, she couldn't quite relax in there.

"I-I'm going to take a break," she said some time around noon, excusing herself as she got up from the chair and leaving Itachi to read whatever he pleased of what she'd written so far.

Her break was short-lived, however.

"Hey, kunoichi," said Kisame once she emerged into the hall. He looked like he was on the way to the kitchen. "Isn't it about time to get this off?" he asked, hitting himself on the bandaged shoulder with his healthy hand. He was soaked to the skin – both his hair, his clothes and his bandages. Maybe he'd been out for a swim.

_He doesn't seem like he's in a bad mood. It can't hurt, can it?_

"Yeah..." she said, a little wary.

To her surprise, he gestured for her to follow him inside the kitchen. He wanted to remove the bandages in there? Reluctant, but not about to refuse, she followed him. To the great horror of the medic side of her, Kisame had already started tearing off the soaked bandages by the time she got inside.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" she exclaimed, sending him the glares she usually reserved for Naruto when he was doing useless things. "When was the last time you washed your hands?! I'll do it, you just hold still."

"Oh?" the azure-skinned man said, grinning in a rather amused way. "You ordering me around?"

"I'm the medic, like it or not," she said, her voice a little quieter than a few seconds prior. She washed her hands as best she could before moving to stand in front of him. "Now, stand still."

Still soaked, Kisame leaned against the old kitchen island – which was full of empty sake bottles – the light coming off his rippled muscles like sun off water. When she gathered chakra at her fingertips, his grin only grew. "You gonna undress me like that?"

She sent him a warning glare very much influenced by Inner Sakura, moving her chakra-infused fingers to his shoulder.

"I could merge the bandage fabric with your skin instead," she proposed, veins popping and teeth grinding, earning herself a wave of angry chakra from Kisame. "But I don't want to waste my energy on something like that."

For the next minutes, both of them were quiet. She used her chakra as makeshift scissors, tearing through the bandages and watching them fall to the floor in a soaked heap. A drop of water ran down from his shoulder, along his uncovered, stitched-up wound. The skin that had been covered by the bandages was lighter than the rest, though if it was because of lack of sunlight or because the rest of his skin was all dirty, she didn't know. Carefully she let her fingertips run along the stitches, probing for warm or swelled areas that might indicate inflammations. Just in case, she sent some chakra into his shoulder to see if it had healed properly there, too.

"Turn around," she said. Huffing, he did as she said, leaning against the kitchen island with his healthy hand. His back muscles frigthened her – she didn't know anyone with muscles of the same size.

"Everything seems to be in order," she said. "You have a monstrous recovery rate."

"Monstrous, huh?" he asked as he faced her, frowning and grinning at the same time. "You mockin' me?"

"No," she said, stepping back. Then, to cover up her small case of girlish fear: "I'll remove the stitches now."

And that, she did. Starting from his back she rid him of the rough, black thread, watching in fascination as the skin healed before her eyes. A nasty scar was left behind, but that didn't seem to bother the fish-man. There was a story behind each scar, she guessed. And he already had lots of them.

"Then I'll just help myself to some sake," Kisame said. She wasn't surprised that he didn't even spare her a 'thanks', though. For a second, she entertained the absurd thought of making proper dinner one day, but shook her head. They'd think she wanted to poison them.

That thought gave her mixed feelings.

With one last glance at the messy kitchen, she left for the library and her notes.

* * *

The next day, after a bath and a generous lunch to store up on chakra, Sakura readied her room for the healing session. She had even washed and dried the bedclothes. Her chakra reserves were almost full, so she was ready. It was five minutes past noon when Itachi knocked at the door.

"Come in," she said quietly, once again mulling over the fact that he actually bothered to knock. He entered, lacking his Akatsuki robe like before. His shirt, part mesh with albow-length sleeves, was in place, as well as a necklace around his neck that she had somehow failed to notice before.

"Um, the healing will definitely take more time than the check i did on your eyes, so I'll have you lie down this time," she said, gesturing at the clean bedsheets on the floor. She sounded more confident than she was. He did as she asked of him without a word. Making sure his eyes would be within her reach, she sat down next to him on the floor, her knees on the bed sheets right next to him.

"I'll have to heal one part of your eyes at a time. I was thinking it might be a good idea to start with-... with your Mangekyo Sharingan," she suggested, half expecting him to kill her with his eyes next. An uncomfortable silence ensued, lasting for the longest time as he looked her square in the eye. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought he was scanning every cell in her eyes and face. But then his eyes glowed red as his Sharingan activated. The eyes started spinning, growing into the fearsome patterns of the famous Mangekyo. The atmosphere in the room changed instantly. Unable to breathe for a moment, Sakura swallowed.

"You don't have to keep your eyes open unless you want to, but I'll have my eyes closed to stay concentrated," she informed. Something told her his eyes would be open from the beginning until the very end of the session. He didn't say anything aloud, though, so she moved her fingers to his temples, resting one of her elbows on his shoulder. Healing him from a sitting position next to him was uncomfortable, but the small room allowed for nothing more. As long as it wasn't unbearable. Itachi stirred as he cold chakra entered his eyes, remaining unnaturally still as the healing of his Mangekyo ensued.

Fifteen minutes later, Sakura opened her eyes.

"The chakra channels of your Mangekyo are as good as I can make them now," she said.

"My eyesight has not improved the slightest," he stated dangerously, his voice cold. Sakura gave an apologetic and very worried smile.

"I'm sorry, but your eyesight won't improve until I've healed your normal eyes," she said. "Trust me on this. Can you activate the normal Sharingan?" she asked, and after a moment he did as she requested. At least he didn't appear to think she was sabotaging his eyes – if she tried, he'd know. And she'd pay, along with her friends later.

After another twenty minutes, Sakura stopped. She was getting tired, but still had plenty of chakra. The biggest job had yet to come.

"Now I've fixed your normal Sharingan to the best of my ability," she said, her voice slightly hoarse, since she'd been quiet for the duration of the Sharingan healing. She took a deep breath and shook her hands. Before speaking again, she cleared her voice.

"Only your normal eyes left, now, Itachi-san," Sakura said, her voice thoughtful. "This step will take some time – that's the reason I saved it for last." She closed her eyes and once again moved her fingers to his temples. One of her elbows still rested lightly on his shoulder, at which Itachi's thoughts lingered for a moment. Her chilling chakra started flowing steadily into Itachi's eyes, slowly healing his worn-out orbs. Her chakra delved into every last fibre of his eyes, restoring them little by little. The lense part of his eyes, his retinas, the cone and rod cells, all the muscles and chambers of his eyes – her chakra crawling and chilling his entire head as she healed him.

He shut his eyes, revelling in the sensations she was creating.

After half an hour, she still had her eyes closed. Itachi opened his own, curious as to whether the healing had had any effect yet.

And for the first time in ages, he was overcome by a feeling of utter contentment. He could not quite describe the strange sensation right away, musing after a while that it might be a feeling he thought he had lost forever – _happiness. _He revelled in it while he could, knowing that in the shell of a man that he was, a feeling like that was not prone to stay long, whether his sight remained good or not. Right now, his eyesight was better than it had ever been. Every last part of the room was sharp and clear, not blurred in the slightest. The rocky ceiling, the cave-like walls, and even the strands of short, pink hair that tickled his cheek. Itachi moved his black gaze to Sakura, who was still healing his eyes. Her eyes were closed in concentration, her dark pink eyelashes long and startlingly fascinating. At the moment, her face was hovering close to his, not too close, yet close enough for him to see every pink strand of hair clearly.

He smirked. She was not just skilled in hand-to-hand combat – taijutsu – but her healing skills were better than that of any other ninja he had met in person. Both her offensive skills and her medical skills were of superb quality.

Then she opened her eyes.

At the sight, his own widened. Her eyes were dull from the tiredness caused by the healing session, yet Itachi found himself gazing into the large, emerald green orbs, wondering for a moment where the colors of the rest of the room had gone to. A chill ran from his neck and down, not caused by the low temperature. She returned his gaze, and for a moment none of them spoke.

What was Sasuke, _blind?_

"I've... I've finished healing your eyes now," she said in a tired whisper. Then, as an after-thought, "Itachi-san." Itachi found he could read her lips – which was ridiculous, because to read her lips, he had to look at them, and looking at them in this proximity was unnatural.

He sat up, looking down at her, revelling in all the ridiculously small details he was able to see everywhere.

"Call me by my name – only Itachi. I am not your superior," he said back, voice low. Sakura looked up at him, her eyes widening a little. She looked wary – suspicious of him. "Few have abilities that surpass those of yours. When it comes to healing, your skills far surpass mine," he said, barely audible at all.

"Itachi-sa... Itachi?" she tried, frowning as she tried saying his name without the formal honorifics. She looked confused.

"If they can't even see that much, your teammates from Konoha don't deserve you," he stated quietly, his eyes boring into hers. She frowned.

"What do you mean by...?" she asked, her voice still a whisper. Her heartbeat increased as her eyebrows knitted.

"They aren't good enough for you. They underestimate you, do they not?" he asked in a murmur, turning to her fully. She still looked up at him, her heart beating even faster. Then he shifted so they sat facing each other, just barely brushing her as he did. She straightened her back and looked straight into his deep, dark orbs, instantly trapped in an illusion.

An illusion not quite caused by his Sharingan.

"I am saying, your skills are too good for you to waste them in Konoha," he muttered.

All color drained from her face just then.

_He isn't going to let me go? _Were they going to keep her there?

Disappointed, yet relieved beyond words that it seemed she had just been permitted to live for a while longer, Sakura wavered. Still sitting, she moved back and averted her eyes, willing herself to breathe. Observing her until she looked back, he rose to his feet, his eyes narrowing as he looked out the door. Before he left, he looked back over her shoulder one last time. Her expression was stiff, but she was not afraid.

He had plans for her – and for her skills.

* * *

**RR**  
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	9. Unexpected

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

He's still a cold-hearted one. It can't be helped.

* * *

Unexpected

* * *

Sakura was standing in front of the waterfall, lost in thought. The masses of water thundered to the point where her ears were going numb, plunging into the river below. She had taken a walk – she just needed to breathe, to lighten the pressure of guilt in her chest. She'd been standing there for some time, already. By all the laws of Konoha, she was now to be regarded as a criminal, guilty of assisting a missing-nin.

_If they ever find out that I've assisted them, that is._

Deciding to go back to her room, she turned around, almost head-butting into the cloak-clad chest of Uchiha Itachi. _Good grief - thank goodness for ninja reflexes... _If she'd actually hit him, she wouldn't have been able to stand the embarrassment.

But she'd been close enough.

"Itachi-san! I'm sorry, I just turned around and I since I couldn't hear you over the waterfall-" she explained, but her voice was drowned by the roar of the falling water. She had no idea if he could hear her or not. But her talking came to an end when he reached out, holding a robe – an Akatsuki robe. Sakura automatically accepted it, looking at it in confusion. He'd made her wear one like it once before, an all black one, back when he took her and Kisame outside to 'let out some steam'. Apparently, the cloaks had something to do with passing through the waterfall. As she held it in her hands, she looked at it, drawn between feeling repulsion at the prospect of wearing a garment belonging to Akatsuki, and the idea of being able to go outside. She looked at him, not sure what to think.

He took her completely off guard by closing the distance between them, leaning down to her ear to ensure she would hear him.

"You'll need it, since we're going outside," he explained, his voice not louder than usual, yet clear as day when she heard it from this proximity. "And I might add that if you add honorifics to my name, I'll do the same with yours, Sakura-san." His breath on her ear – or was it the vibration of his voice – made her shudder. But hearing him call her name with an honorific was so out of place she never wanted to hear it again. It felt like mocking more than anything. Without a word she put on the robe, reassuring herself all the time that it was only for now – a temporary solution.

Five minutes later they were in a grove – a training grove.

Itachi threw his Akatsuki robe on the ground next to where she'd sloppily discarded hers, carefully getting an overview of the surroundings. There were old targets all around. The round targets were attached everywhere – to boulders and trees, even to the ground. Sakura observed that there were old kunais everywhere. They were _around _the targets, but none on target. Maybe Itachi had been unable to hit them. She could ony imagine how mocked he must have felt. As if to confirm her thoughts, Itachi smirked. Something told her she was about to witness a complete reversal.

The Uchiha quickly gathered the kunais, holding them all in his hands. Kisame, who'd been outside from the start, was sitting against a nearby tree trunk – obviously bored. Itachi gathered chakra to his legs and jumped up into the air, hurling the kunais so fast Sakura couldn't see them before they landed. Every single kunai hit its target, right in the middle. Kisame missed the scene, his eyes closed in a lazy fashion. Seeing this, Itachi smirked again, grabbing the cosest kunai and throwing it in Kisame's direction. It landed _right _above his head, stuck deep in the tree he was leaning against. Kisame's eyes opened wide in surprise, his body tense.

"What-?! Why did you do that? You could've hit me!" he shouted.

"I did you a favor, although only a small one," Itachi said quietly. Kisame got to his feet, still a little out of it as he turned around to have a look. There, stabbed by the kunai, was an insect – or the remains of one. The twitching wings were tiny, but their diverse color scheme suggested it might be poisonois. Kisame muttered that it'd take more than that to kill him.

"But I'm glad I'm not taller than this," he muttered, alarmed. If he would have been, that kunai would have been planted quite nicely in the middle of his forehead right about now. But then, as he glanced around him and saw all the kunais right in the middle of the targets, realization dawned upon him. "Eh? What, she healed you already? That was easy." Then his worries about his height were unfounded.

At that, Sakura looked away, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists.

_I'll make up for it. One way or the other, I'll make it back to Konoha with all the information I have about these two. _But somehow, her thoughts were only half-hearted.

* * *

Sakura woke up quite abruptly the next day. She groaned and used her arms to support herself as she sat up.

"Ouch," she mumbled. After some long seconds of just sitting there, she got to her feet, noticing she barely had any chakra left at all. It had been the same way the day before, but she didn't really feel like she'd recovered any since then. Sighing, she remembered how she had healed Itachi's eyes. She frowned as she glanced at her backpack. She had readied it before Itachi came to get his eyes healed, hoping he would let her go. How could she ever have thoughthe'd actually let her go? Her own naïveté stunned even herself. Sadness slowly replaced her annoyance, though, making her feel even more down than she already was.

Glancing at the Akatsuki robe she had been given, she got an idea. Grabbing it, she masked her remaining chakra as well as she could, then left her room.

Itachi had said she could go outside whenever she wanted, since the barrier would keep her from leaving anyway. Darting to the waterfall, she hid her chakra to the utmost of her ability and jumped through the falling water without trouble. The robe was handy, she'd give them that. She landed on top of the water on the other side, then moved swiftly to the closest cliff and climbed it using chakra. She could feel Itachi's and Kisame's chakra somewhere nearby, but they didn't seem to have noticed her yet. Their chakra rippled against her in waves, indicating they might be sparring. Waiting for a bit to see if the flow of chakra paused, she held her breath. But apparently her chakra masking training had payed off. There was no change in their chakra flow, nor even a bit of killing intent.

Sakura walked in silence until she spotted a thin line on the ground. In the air was a very faint wall of chakra. It looked weak, but she knew better, after having been grinded against it underwater. She had a few suspicions about it, though. They'd said she wouldn't be able to leave. But then how come the water from the giant waterfall was able to pass through?

Determined to get to the bottom of this, she pulled out one of her pink strands of hair and held it above the line on the ground, against the barrier. The barrier didn't give at all, which wasn't surprising. The strand just bent. Dropping it, Sakura pushed her hand against it, but to no avail. It was like an invisible wall. It didn't even budge. Then she picked up a normal straw of grass and held it against the barrier. The straw passed through without the barrier reacting or blocking it at all. At that, Sakura grinned wider than she had since the day she'd met Team 7 again.

_**Hehehe... Ita-kun and Kisa-kun underestimated us!**_ chimed Inner Sakura, shaking a fist in victory.

First Sakura looked over her shoulder to see if the others had noticed her or not. Then she cut her tumb, using her blood to write a seal on her hand. She could have written on the ground, except then Itachi or Kisame might find it and confront her about it.

"Kuchiose no jutsu," she said in a determined whisper. One puff of smoke later, a summoned falcon sat on her hand.

"Yo, what's cookin'? Eh? Sakura-chan!" the bird said in a squeaky voice. "Long time-"

"Miko, please be quiet, this is important!" Sakura said in a low voice, glancing over her shoulder. No one was coming. The flow of Itachi's and Kisame's chakra didn't change, either. They were still going at it. Sakura let out a small sigh of relief before continuing.

"Listen to me, Miko. I need you to deliver a message to the Hokage," she whispered. The falcon moved up Sakura's arm to sit on her shoulder, all ears. "Tell her I'm with Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. I'm being kept here as a medic – Itachi even said the people from Konoha weren't good enough for me, so who knows how long he'll keep me here..." Sakura explained, tracking off. The bird whistled quietly at this.

"Once you've delivered the message, just dismiss yourself. I'll summon you later to hear what she has to say," Sakura said hurriedly. "And remember to tell them where I am. Now, go!"

"On it," the tiny Miko chirped, then took off. Flashing half a smile, Sakura watched as he flew away through the barrier. Then she reluctantly turned and headed back. Why hadn't she just told Miko that she had healed Itachi's eyes? Her friends wouldn't know how much sronger he'd grown. Sakura frowned upon feeling her subconciousness come to its own sort of conclusion.

_**Perhaps you have feelings for him!**_ Inner Sakura leered. Sakura stopped dead, face turning to stone.  
_No, no way. _Sakura frowned angrily at the statement, which was one she honestly hadn't even thought about before._  
__**Why not?! I mean, he's handsome! And besides, he looks like Sasuke, don't you think?**__  
He doesn't! _Well, perhaps in terms of behavior and expressions, but Itachi was different from Sasuke. _Itachi doesn't ignore me.__  
__**Exactly!**_

Stunned at this argument she was having with herself, Sakura sighed exasperatedly, gritting her teeth.

_In any case, the one I like is Sasuke._

Her heart didn't confirm that thought as quickly as she'd like, though.

* * *

Itachi put on his robe again, more than satisfied with the training he'd done today. Not once had he missed the targets. Kisame, on the other hand, was more than happy that the training was over. It had been some time since the Uchiha had posed such a challenge. If they had been enemies, Kisame would be dead already.

Once Itachi headed back to the hideout, Kisame followed.

"Say, now that your eyes are back on track, what should we do with the kunoichi?" he asked. At this question, Itachi allowed himself to smirk. Seeing as his eyes were better than ever, he had quite the ambitions when it came to Sakura. He could not recall ever having met a medic of her level until now. If he played his cards right, she could be useful.

"She is a good medic," he replied. "And we could use a good medic."

"You sayin' we'll keep her?" Kisame pried, grinning. Itachi turned halfway to him while walking.  
"I am saying we'll give her an offer she cannot refuse," he answered.

Once inside, he and Kisame made their way to the kitchen to fill their energy reserves.

What they saw when they opened the door, however, was completely unexpected. The empty sake bottles were gone, the old kicthen island cleared of used glasses and dirty plates, the sink cleaner than it had been even back when they installed it, the mugs were back behind the doors of the currently open cabinets, and every last bit of grimy cutlery sparkled from their position in one of the open drawers. To add to that, a giant stewpot – which emitted an absurdly appetizing smell – occupied the stove. In the middle of it all was Haruno Sakura, wearing, amongst other things, sanitary gloves and a matching mask over her lower face. She was moving back and forth furiously and even when she saw them, she finished closing all the cupboard doors and drawers before removing her mask and addressing them.

"Really!" she all but scolded. "I went in here to find myself some food, and the first thing I found was a rotten apple, so I figured I could just slice up a bread and make a sandwich instead, but the bread was full of mold!" she seethed. "Then I found something strange that turned out to be an ancient cheeze – it's a miracle you haven't fallen victim to food poisoning." She looked disgusted. Itachi looked on in amusement, certain that her tirade – and her getup – had something to do with her being a medic. He found he rather liked it.

"What's wrong with living off sake?" Kisame asked loudly, but he couldn't hold back an entertained guffaw. Himself, Itachi usually ate out, his favorite food being dango from-...

_Ah, let's stop that thought._

"I made myself soup of the food that was left intact," the medic continued, then averted her eyes. "I made a lot, since if I hadn't, the ingredients would be rotten within a day or two..." The most modest of blushes colored her cheeks as she threw off her gloves and helped herself first. Before he or Kisame said anything else, she left the room, her blush only growing, and her frown as well.

"Then," said Kisame, all but licking his lips, "I'll help myself!"

And so it came to pass that the three of them had dinner together in the common room. It was rather quiet around the table, but not uncomfortably so, since Kisame kept the mood light by simply eating for all he was worth. Itachi eyed Sakura over his bowl of soup. She didn't seem to notice, and so they ate in silence for a while. As she continued eating, her cheeks got a little red. Itachi's eyes narrowed and he turned to watch Kisame dig in. The fish-man didn't even use the spoon, but emptied the entire bowl of soup like it was a mug of water – or a sake bottle. Noticing that he was observing Kisame, Sakura, too, turned to look at the blue-skinned man.

He was looking awfully light-headed. His eyes weren't too focused, and then he bent back and let free a deep, raspy, disgustingly long burp. Itachi frowned at him – Sakura's eyebrows twitched.

"I _love _this!" Kisame exclaimed, swaying. Beginning to understand what was happening, Sakura laughed nervously and grabbed her spoon again to keep eating as if nothing was off. Her cheeks got a little redder as she continued downing the soup. Without the others seeing him, Itachi smelled at the soup. And indeed, there was definitely an ingredient in there that might have been better off if she hadn't used quite as much of it.

_Alcohol. _Could it be because all of Kisame's sake bottles had been in her way in the kitchen? Sakura had poured sake in the soup just to free space?

"I, uh," she stuttered, smiling apologetically, "I learned from a friend that a little bit of alcohol in gravy or soups would drastically improve the taste..." Then followed some muffled, slightly angry words at one 'Ino-pig' or another.

She looked like she was waiting for him to scold her.

_Or..._

"If you think something like using half of Kisame's sake to get us angry and throw you out, you're being naïve," he deadpanned, helping himself to the soup while Sakura stared, breathless. Kisame froze, too, sobering up faster than he himself thought was possible. "In terms of taste, the soup is quite all right. We will be fine as long as we don't help ourselves to too much."

A minute passed by in silence – Kisame was still frozen, staring into his empty bowl.

"You," she said, barely audible, "You're not angry?" When he glanced up at her, her cheeks were red from the sake, but her eyes were still steady. Itachi eyed an opportunity. "Whereas your move was a bold one, I'll ignore it if you hear me out for a bit," he said, looking intently into Sakuras emerald orbs. "I have an offer for you." She knitted her eyebrows in concentration.

"What?" she asked, then as an afterthought, "Itachi-san?" She hardly heard her own voice.

"Call me Itachi – and call Kisame whatever you want," he said, leaning a little closer to her. Kisame gave an annoyed growl and got to his feet noisily. Something told Sakura that if it weren't for the fact that Itachi was in the room with them, he would already have fileted her the moment he heard that she'd used his sake in the dinner. Why was she so sure? Well, the brand new indentations in the table on each side of his empty bowl matched his hands exatly. Sending her a stare that could kill, the azure-skinned man headed for the door. He swayed as he left.

"This would be my third request from you," Itachi said in a very low voice. Sakura's heart skipped several beats, at which she mentally hit herself.

_**Request, my ass, **_voiced Inner Sakura. _**More like an order, with death as punishment if we refuse.**_

Inner Sakura's anger was short-lived, though, because soon enough she was commenting how amazing Itachi's voice was – that it was even lower than Sasuke's – and how darn snaxy he looked in the faint, warm light from the old lamp above them, and how easy it was to get lost in those misty, faded black eyes of his, as opposed to the stone cold walls of eyes that Sasuke had. And there was very little Sakura could do to stop her alter ego's mental word vomit.

Itachi rose, walking closer to her, but averting his eyes, looking like he was deep in thought for a moment.

"Would you be willing," he said in a murmur, glancing at the door, then moving so close his lips almost touched her ear, "to consider," he whispered, his breath causing a sudden intake of air from Sakura, which made him pause – but he didn't move away. Her face increased from _sake_ red to_ ultra-super-embarrsement _red. And then he finished his request, "joining Akatsuki?"

She paled.

* * *

The Hokage sat in her office, staring at the growing piles of paperwork. She had done nothing but stare at it ever since Team 7 had reported Sakura missing – _abducted_. And then there was Orochimaru, who was dead at last. Though he had been evil, with incomprehensibly dark motives, he had once been her teammate, her close friend who she'd shared important memories with. But there was a price to pay for everything, and to prevent further damage to the entire ninja world, his death had been a necessary one. But Akatsuki remained.

As if on cue, Shizune entered, carrying even more papers. Tsunade sighed loudly, frowning.

"Shizune..." she started. Shizune put the papers on the last spot on the desk where the wooden surface was still visible. "Where is my sake?" The wall of paperwork was so ridiculous she would have laughed, if she had not herself been the recipient. Just when Shizune opened her mouth to retort, something flew past her and landed on top of the newest pile of papers. It was a falcon, a _familiar _one.

Shizune and Tsunade stared.

"Miko?" Tsunade asked unbelievingly. The bird was visibly exhausted, its beak open and its feathers untidy.  
"Yes," it breathed. "Miko-sama, at your service." Tsunade quickly bent closer to Miko, strong hope surfacing in the shape of a fierce frown, at which the bird jumped further away from her. Shizune had run outside to call for a couple of jounins, who instantly appeared to recieve orders.

"Get Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto right away. Tell them it concerns their missing teammate. Go!" she hissed tensely. Shizune moved closer to hear better.

"Miko, tell us where Sakura is. Is she hurt?" Tsunade asked as calmly as she could.

"No. She said... Sakura said that she's being held prisoner by Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame... She wanted ya to know she was OK, though I could tell she was very low on chakra. They're keeping her as a medic," said the bird. "And apparently Uchiha Itachi has said something about her being too good for you guys from Konoha, so he's going to keep her there for who knows how long. Well, something like that," the bird chirped.

"Too good for Konoha? That's-" Tsunade started, fuming.

"_Tsunade-no-bachaaan!_" Naruto bellowed as he came charging into the office. Right behind him came Kakashi, and lastly Sasuke.

"Naruto!" Tsunade shouted, veins popping all over her forehead. "Stop calling me _'old lady' _like there's no tomorrow! Be serious!"

"But the there won't _be _a tomorrow if we can't get Sakura-chan back!" he countered angrily, his fiery eyes glowing with determination.

Sighing, realizing she'd gotten to her feet at some point, the Hokage addressed the ninjas before her. "Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke... Sakura is currently being held hostage by Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi. Miko here, Sakuras summon, knows their location," she said, eyeing every one of them. Upon hearing Itachi's name, Sasuke frowned in anger. They had watched her get taken away by Itachi, unable to do anything.

Now they could finally move out.

* * *

Sakura sat on her blankets on the floor, with a soft, warm quilt covering her. It hid her completely, hiding the world from her and her from the world – somehow that was just what she needed when she felt homesick. It was a rather unbecoming thing to do, she knew that, especially for a _ninja. _She had her arms around her knees, thinking long and hard about everything that had happened. Her Akatsuki robe was on the floor, left in a heap in the corner of the room.

_Join Akatsuki, huh... How could he ask such a question?_

She wasn't _that _good. But perhaps they needed a medic. Sakura snorted. As if she would heal any of _them. _She'd already done enough damage. For all she knew, they could be planning to crush Konoha. And they were after Naruto. But she had healed Itachi anyway. She pulled her knees closer. Even so, this sort of opportunity could be used as a great advantage in terms of information gathering for Konoha. It was a perfect opportunity to spy on Akatsuki. Sakura would be the first to know their next moves and she would be able to warn Konoha if they or any of their allies were in danger. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

_But I want to go back to Konoha...  
__**You do? Why not spy on Akatsuki **_**and** _**spend time with Ita-kun? **_Sakura frowned deeply, instantly furious with her alter ego. But still...  
_I can try to get back home safely, to my friends, or I can serve Konoha in one of the most useful ways possible...  
__**AND you can spend time with Itachi! **_

Sakura frowned again, ignoring Inner Sakura with willpower alone. While still frowning, she grabbed the quilt that was covering her and threw it off.

"Why, hello. I was wondering how long you would sit under there," Itachi said. He was sitting on the only chair in the room, by the door. When she saw him, he got up and sat down a little closer on the floor, facing her, his hands resting at his hips. Surprised and blushing at this unforeseen development, she grabbed her quilt, wanting nothing more than to hide herself with it forever – though it wasn't like something like that would make the dangerous Uchiha go away. Itachi stopped her by catching her wrist. She let go of the quilt and looked at him, a frightened look on her face. He blinked.

"Retreating so soon, _Sakura_?" he asked. Sakura swallowed and averted her emerald eyes from his face, gritting her teeth. His Akatsuki cloak was just open enough for her to glimpse his necklace.

"N-no, _Itachi,_" she retorted, her voice shaking. He smirked and leaned closer to her.

"Then, have you given my request any thought?" he asked silently. Sakura felt his breath on her face. _Just like Sasuke's. _She had thought of his request, yes, but hadn't decided yet.

"I've thought about it," she answered, glancing at her captured wrist, then closing her eyes for a second. To her horror, Itachi was even closer when she opened them. If he couldn't see every last cell and pore in her face now, that meant they didn't even exist.

"Well? Are you willing to try joining Akatsuki?" he whispered. Sakura blinked. He was too close for her to think.

She managed a frown, despite him being so unbearably close.

"Will you let me go if I don't?" she asked.

"Hn." He smirked. "I don't think I will."

She could see every last fibre of his faded eyes. Was this how Sasuke's eyes would look like when he got older? And if she could see his eyes this clearly, she didn't dare to think how clearly he saw hers. His eyes moved intently from one of her eyes to the other, unreadable.

"Then there's the answer," she said, frown fading as she took on a strong air of indifference. "To your order."

There was a pause."Good choice, _Sakura,_" he whispered, ignoring that she'd called his 'request' an order. Then his eyes narrowed as his eyes once again moved between her green ones. His orbs looked like gray pools, but they were filled with shadows. Despite the lack of color, his orbs seemed very much alive. As he eyed her, Inner Sakura grinned in victory, at which Sakura moved back until her back hit the wall. Leaning against the stone wall, Sakura stared at the Uchiha, alert.

Before she could blink, he had one hand on each side of her on the wall. Looking at her intently, all but sucking out whatever it was he was looking for, he closed the distance between them and kissed her.

Sakura froze completely.

The shock was too much.

_What's-?_

When his lips left hers, he let his forehead rest against her, looking into her wide eyes. She was whirling between so many feelings – staggering from shock to confusion to sadness to shock once more, and to fury, because this Uchiha had just stolen away her first kiss, the one she'd been saving for Sasuke. And whereas Inner Sakura was sqealing about the feeling of his mouth against her and about the amazing scent of his hair, which so reminded of Sasuke, Sakura herself found all she could do was to helplessly knit her eyebrows in a vain attempt to keep her eyes from widening anymore.

But it was impossible with his face this close to hers.

Seeing how tense she was, Itachi moved away a little, a faint smirk on his lips. Upon seeing her eyes flash between his and her cheeks remaining rosey rather than paling, his smirk grew. She looked away, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth as she frowned.

"What did you just-" she started, but changed her mind. "What did you do that for?" she demanded.

But her question was left unanswered when he spoke next: "We are going to the main hideout of Akatsuki tomorrow," he whispered softly. Then he slowly got to his feet, watching her. "You better prepare for much worse than what I've put you through in this hideout." He walked sideways to the door, guarding her with his black gaze.

"I will be keeping an eye on you, during and after the trip there," he said. "Or two, if need be."

Sakura was left behind, stunned.

* * *

**RR**

Woosh~


	10. Move

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... Or Itachi.

Leaving a review will take you roughly 0.05% of the time it took me to write this chapter for you guys~ Or something like that, haha~

* * *

Move

* * *

How on earth were Naruto and the others supposed to find her now that they were moving away from the hideout?

Sakura, Itachi and Kisame were jumping from tree to tree, heading northeast. They had been traveling for hours without rest, without exchanging a word. Sakura scowled at the two Akatsuki members in front of her. They didn't even seem to be paying attention to her. But if she tried escaping, they'd stop her – of that, she was sure. But the thought was still tempting. Itachi hadn't even glanced in her direction, as if the kiss he'd given her – _forced _on her – had been all in her head. Becoming increasingly annoyed, Sakura frowned deeply.

"Where are we going?" she asked, still jumping from tree to tree. She knew they were going to Akatsuki's main hideout, but where was it located?

"North," Kisame spat. He didn't seem to eager about it.

Sakura found it best to remain quiet. Perhaps her plan to spy on Akatsuki wasn't so good after all. She was probably overestimating herself. Akatsuki was full to the brim of nasty S-rank criminals, after all. If they found out she was spying – no, _when _they found out she was spying, she would be...

_Killed? Fired? Ripped in pieces? Maybe burned?_

Her thoughts didn't exactly offer encouragement. This wasn't where she belonged. She should be in Konoha with Team 7, eating ramen, gossiping with Ino and going shopping with her friends, and going on an occasional mission. Maybe she should help out more at the hospital, like she'd been doing before her training journey. Her place was not here, with Kisame and Itachi, who didn't give a care so long as she didn't stray too far away. Perhaps Itachi had just kissed her the day before to throw her off and make her oblige to his request. Maybe he was just using her.

_What am I talking about, 'maybe'? _

Of course he was just using her. He was an S-rank missing-nin. Kisame threw a glance over his shoulder, frowning.

"What're you sulking about?!" he demanded in a growl. "I've told you before, that kind of mood is _contagious._"

At that, Sakura decided to put a lid on her feelings for a bit. An emotional ninja was an unprofessional ninja, liable to suffer utter defeat in the blink of an eye.

* * *

"Is everyone here?" Tsunade asked, looking at the shinobi in front of her. They were Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Lee and Gai. A strange combination, indeed, but they were all jounins or ANBU members, and they would do everything within their power to get Sakura back – and their numbers made it possible to take out both Itachi and Kisame. Tsunade had that much faith in them.

"Very well. Gai, you have experience fighting Kisame, and since you often train with Kakashi, I'm assuming you'll have a small advantage fighting Itachi as well, who also uses Sharingan," she started. At this, Gai mumbled something including the words _rival, strong, _and _youth__, _standing in a typical Gai-pose, with his sparkling trust-me grin intact.

"And Lee, you're in for similar reasons. You're like Gai, in many ways... And I've permitted myself to assume you will do almost anything for Sakura, am I right?" Tsunade asked. Lee confirmed her thoughts, brimming with shimmering determination.

"The rest of team 7... You know why you're here. I take it you're ready to do anything to save Sakura," she said. "All of you will leave this evening. Thank you for being quiet when I talk. That makes things smoother. Questions?" the Hokage asked.

Kakashi held his hand up.

"We may need a medic..." he said quietly, and the others looked at her, the silence a bit uncomfortable. Tsunade sighed.

"I'm thinking of sending Shizune, but I'll let you know if there is a change of plans. I have a feeling we're getting Sakura into loads of trouble by sending this many to help her," she said, frowning. "If we add even more people..."

Sakura had better be all right. Or else Tsunade would crack the continent in search for those responsible for hurting her.

* * *

Where were they? Country of Earth? Country of Lightning? Somewhere in the middle between? Whatever the case, it was freezing. They had been traveling fast, avoiding roads and landmarks. The non-stop journey had taken its toll on the already chakra-depraved Sakura. She was becoming tired. It was just way too cold – she could see why Kisame wasn't happy to be here. The snowy mountains that they had climbed to get here were freezing, not allowing any warmth at all to linger for too long. The white snow that had looked cooling and pure at first glance was now a merciless warmth-thief. The only thing that lit the road when evening turned to night was the snow itself.

"I-I'm just wondering..." Sakura dared speak, "Could we perhaps ta-take a _small _break?" Her stuttered request made the two others slow down and come to a stop. Itachi just looked ahead, not even turning to glance in her direction.

"I say we take a break in the next village," Kisame said, narrowing his eyes to shield off some of the sharp wind. "We'll continue tomorrow, or else we'll freeze." Mumbling something about how he hated snow and icy mountains, he let an angry wave of his powerful chakra pulse through the air. It was almost comfortably warm. Sakura nodded gratefully in his direction, earning herself a huff.

When they were at the village, maybe she could summon Miko again, to tell him what had happened – to inform him that they were no longer at the hideout.

It didn't take long for them to get there. Though it was hardly a large village, it did at least have more than ten houses, maybe a little more than twenty, even, if those snow-clad lumps next to some of the houses were buildings also. They went to the only Inn around, called Fish-Inn. It was surprisingly high-standard – she guessed they earned well on lost wanderers such as themselves. And an occasional member of Akatsuki with deep pockets probably wasn't bad for their economy, either. Her room was spacious, with a proper bed and a warm bathroom. Once she heard Itachi and Kisame go downstairs to get some food (she would never have heard them if not for Kisame's guffawing), she retreated to her bathroom and filled the bathtub. Once she was clean and dressed, she summoned Miko. The second her falcon summon appeared, she covered him with her own chakra, hiding his presence from Itachi and Kisame. The bird moved to sit on her head.

"Miko, I've gotten into some _serious _trouble," she whispered. The falcon bent his head down to look into her eyes, blinking.

"I'm such a stupid fool," she continued in a whisper. "Itachi... Somehow, he made me agree to join Akatsuki." Miko flapped his wings in surpise.

"Say _what?_" he chirped quietly.

"I thought I was being smart, because if I joined them I could spy on them... But I can't do that, I'll just mess everything up! And then they'll find out about me being a spy, and then they'll-"

"Stop that," the skinny falcon said quietly. Sakura nodded, causing the falcon to flap its wings a little.

Her next words would make it felt like a knife was stabbing her heart, because she knew that Sasuke – and maybe even her other friends – wouldn't ever forgive her.

"Miko, please let Tsunade know that I... that I healed Itachi's eyes." When she spoke, Miko fell down, and Sakura barely caught him in her hands. "I did it to come back to Konoha, to give information about Itachi and Kisame, if that'll even make a difference... If I refused, he said he'd kill me off and save the sight as an illusion to show the others later. Please tell Tsunade-sama I'm sorry," she stopped whispering, and Miko moved to her shoulder.

_Sasuke won't ever forgive me. _It felt like she was severing all ties with him.

"It'll be A-OK. This Miko-sama will tell your friends everything," he chirped quietly. Sakura left the bathroom and opened the window of her bedroom, pitying the bird for a moment when snow came blowing inside. "Good luck 'till then, and _see you,_" he said, then took off. Sakura was left behind, her hands clutching the front of her shirt as if to ease her guilt. Then she shut the window and headed downstairs. There, in the middle of the common room, Itachi and Kisame had just finished eating by one of the tables in the corner. Kisame was on a drinking binge, as usual.

Itachi sat with his eyes closed.

"Aaah! Sakura-medic!" Kisame exclaimed while hiccuping. "I have something _very _funny to tell you, hahaha." Sakura took a seat, eyeing the fish-man.

"What?" she asked uncertainly.

Kisame started waving a red book. _The newest bingo book? _That book was updated every time something big happened. It could be updated once a year, or two days in a row. Sakura guessed it had something to do with Orochimaru and his death. Would it say anything about his killer? Kisame started reading loudly, swaying from the sake.

"Haruno Sakura, _f__ormer _Konoha ninja and ANBU member," he started. Sakura's head jerked up, eyes wide with shock. "Suspected to have _killed _Orochimaru barehanded. Special skills: medical jutsus, superhuman strength... Current status: Alive. Added to B-book for joining Akatsuki," he slurred.

_No..._

There was no way it was possible for Miko to have been this fast. That was impossible. Then why was she listed as a missing-nin for having joined Akatsuki?

"What..." she said, breathless. "Who did this, how did-"

"Well, who do you _think _did it? We fixed it fer you, so you wouldn't have to do it yerself!" Kisame said in a raspy voice, grinning drunkenly. Sakura's grip on the edge of the table hardened. A large crack appeared, then the table split and fell apart. Sakura glared at it.

"Excuse me," the bartender called politely from his position behind the bar. "I'm afraid you're going to have to pay for that."

Sakura got to her feet, raising her burning emerald gaze as she did, then walked slowly to the bar, reaching for her pouch. From it, she produced a solid bunch of bills, which she proceeded to hand to the smiling, black-and-white-clad man.

"Thank you so much," he said. "But I'm afraid this is a little too much, even for that ancient table," he added, bowing a little as he made to hand some of it back. Sakura looked him in the eye, her fake, polite expression remaining in place. Veins were popping all over her forehead.

"I know," she said, the corner of her mouth twitching dangerously in a dangerous smile. "The rest is for the wall." The man froze, looking at her with wide eyes.

Then she returned to the fallen table, which had sake spilled all over it. Loading her arms and fists wth chakra, she grabbed both halves of the split whole and hurled the table with all her might into the closest wall, crushing it completely. The dust produced in the impact didn't last long, as freezing wind made its way inside and brushed it all away.

Kisame sobered up some, and Itachi eyed her once she turned around.

"What? You don't _want _to join Akatsuki?" Kisame slurred, smirking.

_No, I don't.  
_  
"_Of course I do. _But I wanted to tell my friends myself," she stated. And she wanted to tell them she regretted it, too. "Besides, I haven't been training a lot lately, and so the table with your platters and your drinks on it suddenly looked unspeakably tempting," she added in a low voice, her smile as stiff as it could get. And since she was afraid that if she stayed, she'd be punished Akatsuki-style for interrupting Kisame's and Itachi's meals, she strode out of the room.

"Don't wake me up early," she muttered under her breath, knowing they could hear her. Kisame guffawed loudly, putting away the hated 'Bingo Book' and ordering more sake while Itachi watched the hole in the wall with interest.

He had tried copying her strength, but he was not able to use as much chakra as her without harming the chakra channels in his hands. It could be some sort of medic-nin move, or perhaps something like a blood-limit. Most ninjas could concentrate their chakra in their hands or feet, but very few were able to concentrate the amount of chakra that Sakura and the current Hokage were able to. Those who did, received permanent damage to their chakra channels. It wasn't a technique that could be copied, no matter how good one's precision was.

* * *

A tired Tsunade was currently at the main gates of Konoha, about to wish the rescue team good luck. Nobody had arrived just yet, but if it meant avoiding the paperwork in her office, she could wait here all night. Sighing loudly, she turned away from the village, looking at the dark road outside.

Just then a spot on the sky caught her eye, a small, winged silhouette. Her eyes narrowed to better see the bird.

"Miko?" she muttered, running forward to catch the sloppily diving falcon. Upon seeing her, the bird let himself fall into her cupped hands. Tiny chest rising and falling rapidly, he managed to tell the Hokage he'd been flying non-stop since the evening before. Once the bird had recovered some, he told Tsunade what Sakura had told him – every last bit. Struggling not to lose her temper, Tsunade clenched her teeth, fuming in silence. After finishing its report, the bird dismissed itself in a puff of smoke.

One by one, the members of the team arrived, coming into view in the late evening light. Most of them got there at the same time, having joined each other on the way. All of them arrived early, even Kakashi. It was becoming a habit, apparently. Then again, Sakura was one of his students.

"Eh? Tsunade-no-baachan?" Naruto said, surprised. Having no time to waste, she ignored him.

"Rescue Team, something has come up. I've just recieved an update from Sakura's summon. Sakura... She has been forced to join Akatsuki. She has also –_ listen to me! – _she was also made to heal Itachi's Sharingan," she said loudly, in order to be heard by the mumbling team. As expected, Sasuke's shock was quickly replaced by unmistakable fury, his eyes burning. "She would have been killed if she hadn't agreed to do it." At the Hokage's words, Sasuke clenched his fists in a futile attempt to calm himself.

If Itachi killed her too...

Tsunade walked over to Shizune, who had been assigned as the team's medic, signalizing to give her her backpack. The younger woman looked at her in question.

"Shizune, we are dealing with more than just two members of Akatsuki – and if Itachi's eyes are healed, this will take more manpower," Tsunade explained. "I will not let Sakura be taken by them. I don't mean to be rude, but my fighting experience far exceeds yours. To add to that, your paperwork experience far exceeds mine."

"But, Tsunade-sama!" Shizune exclaimed, incredulous, and a little annoyed, too.

"No one besides _us _will know that I am not in my office, Shizune. I leave it to you to take my place while I'm gone," the Hokage ordered, leaving room for no questions. "Make sure nobody notices I'm gone. _Understood?_" she asked, her fuse shortening by the second.

"But," Shizune said again.

"_Yes? _Is there something you want to say?" Tsunade asked in a warning tone. Shizune paused, then shook her head, and Tsunade stomped out of Konoha, her feet loaded with chakra. "And though I don't like to say this, maybe you should hold back on that paperwork a little, or else people will get suspicious. It's all right to be a little sloppy."

_Stupid Sakura. _What had she gotten herself into? Tsunade's frow deepened.

"In any case, I hope we won't have to face all the Akatsuki members at the same time," she said. "Let's hope Sakura will help us out."

* * *

Sakura woke up fairly early the next morning, and after taking a bath and drying her hair she went to her room and grabbed her backpack. She got dressed, making sure she wore her full ANBU uniform, including her mask, which she moved to the side of her head. Then, on top, she put on the Akatsuki robe Itachi had given her. She walked to the common room, which was still somewhat cold, even with the makeshift repairs on the wall.

The bartender looked up at her from a half-cleaned glass, smiling politely.

"Can I help you?"

"I'll have breakfast, please. Anything is fine," she said in a quiet voice. She noticed Itachi and Kisame sitting in the other end of the room, already done eating. "And there's no need to hurry," she added. Her thoughts wandered and she found herself wondering what Akatsuki needed a medic for. Their members should be of high enough rank not to get wounded easily. She held back a smile, pondering whether she had found a weakness. Once her breakfast was served, she glanced in Itachi's direction. He didn't look back. Not that she had expected him to, but it still bothered her that he made such an effort to ignore her. Then she shook her head gently, knitting her eyebrows.

_No... I shouldn't feel disappointment at something like that._

After eating, she put her mask on and swiftly moved to Kisame and Itachi. Looking at them through the eye holes of her mask, she spoke, "I'm ready to go now." Itachi got up, eyeing her mask. A bored Kisame also got to his feet, his chair falling down behind him. He ignored it.

"About time, kunoichi," Kisame said hoarsely. They moved outside. The bartender said his polite goodbyes.

* * *

Some hours later, Sakura could see the summit of the icy mountain ahead. There was no snow on its peak, but there was plenty on the path there. Stopping for a moment, she looked at the looming mountain. Kisame, a little bluer than usual, stopped also, turning to face her.

"What now?" he asked, irritated.

"Is that the location of Akatsuki's main hideout?" she asked, watching the peak ahead.

"Yeah, one of 'em, what about it?" he asked, a small, evil grin surfacing on his face. "You nervous?" Of course she was nervous. She could get killed. If they asked her questions and she lied, they'd be able to tell. And she'd pay for it.

She didn't give Kisame a reply, but couldn't her her curiosity.

"Eh, does your... fellow members know I'm coming with you?" she asked, worried. Kisame's grin widened.

"Only if they've read the Bingo Book. But just so you know, they're going to test you," Kisame answered in a hoarse voice. Sakura immediately felt color drain from her hidden face. If her friends from Konoha came for her, she hoped with all her might they wouldn't get hurt. Taking a deep breath, she started walking again, hoping _she _would survive as well.

* * *

The group of six ninjas arrived in the snowy village at record speed – they hadn't made a single stop all the way, knowing time was of the essence. The first place they checked was the Inn. The bartender, who – despite being polite – went on Tsunade's nerves, showed out to be quite willing to talk after they waved a little money in front of him.

"Yes, there was a pink-haired ninja here, together with two others – they left this morning. She broke a table and one wall," he said, counting the bills Tsunade had shoved at him while nodding in the direction of the broken wall. Tsunade's eyebrows rose at the sight, feeling some measure of pride at her apprentice's guts. Her being fiery was a good sign. Kakashi was quick to summon his dog, Pakkun, who was ready to be of help.

"What's the problem here?" the dog asked.

"We need you to track down Sakura," Kakashi said.

"Sakura? All right, it's been a long time since I last saw that girl, so it would be nice to have something with her scent on it," the summoned dog said. Tsunade turned to the man behind the counter. He was still happily counting his money.

"Well, that girl did forget a little something in her room," he said, bending down to search behind the counter. "A headband." He handed it to Naruto, who let the dog smell its scent.

"Okay. That'll do," Pakkun announced, already on the move. Naruto was left behind with Lee, staring at the headband in his hands.

"Why did Sakura-chan forget her _headband, _of all things?" he asked quietly, pouting a little in confusion. Lee walked up to him.

"She must have left it on purpose! She trusted us to find it!" Lee said loudly, flashing his trademark grin, including the sparkle. Naruto visibly relaxed, grinning before long.

"Yeah! She's smart, so that's how it's got to be!" he concluded and put Sakura's headband in his pocket, moving after the others.

* * *

Sakura instinctively crouched as she watched the hidden door to the hideout opening. There was no seal on the door – all they had to do was open it and enter. She hoped they were the first ones to arrive, as it would be much easier to greet the others one by one as they got here, rather than introducing herself to all of them at once. She wondered what they would think of her. If some of them would hate and and want to kill her.

"Why is there no seal?" she asked.

"Because someone else is already inside – the door will be open until we leave," Itachi said in a low voice. Kisame moved inside. Sakura turned to watch Itachi for a second. She hadn't heard his voice for some time now.

"But what about enemies?" she asked, moving inside after them. She looked into the dark, huge cave.

Suddenly, she was overcome by a tremendous mix of hostile chakras, all of which pulsed in the air around her. Sakura looked around, struggling to breathe for a moment. From the black shadows, one by one of the Akatsuki members stepped closer. Sakura struggled to keep her head clear in the sea of malicious energy, frowning.

"Enemies?" a voice said. "What sort of an enemy does it take, I wonder, for him to pose trouble for _us?_" She looked at the person in front of her, who was still somewhat hidden in shadows. Eternally grateful that she had her ANBU mask, she stared at them with wide eyes and took a deep breath.

She would _never _make it through this in one piece.

"Itachi-san, why don't you present us? Yeah," a voice said. Sakura turned to see a man with light blonde hair in a high ponytail. He smirked, moving closer to her. She stepped away, but he followed until he was close enough to pull her mask to the side of her face.

"Oh! Well, what do you know! A girl!" he said, amused. Sakura didn't know where to look – or what to say, for that matter.

"What is your business here, kunoichi?" the man in the shadows demanded. She guessed he was their leader – she could only see the spiky silhouette of his hair, and a couple of strange eyes. Sakura gathered what she had left of control and cleared her voice before speaking.

"I'm a medic... My name's Haruno Sakura," she said quietly, not daring to speak any louder in case her voice would fail. "I'm from Konoha." The blonde man eyed her. She recognized him from some of the reports she had looked through back in Konoha – this guy's name was Deidara.

"Haruno Sakura, yeah? What's your speciality?" he asked, still observing her.

"I..." she spoke, glancing between the feet of the Akatsuki members whose faces she couldn't see.

"She has the skills to join us! Why dont you test her, Deidara?" Kisame suggested, enjoying the terrified look she shot him. "She's capable. First one to faint or die loses. If she loses, she's out of here!"

"No! I can't-" Sakura started, but got punched so hard in her side that she flew halfway across the room, rolling around several times before coming to a stop.

Blood was already trickling from the corner of her mouth. Her mask had fallen off, too. She coughed once, but then she quickly got to her feet and healed herself. She didn't watch the others, hoping they'd stay out of this out of amusement, if nothing more. When she was done healing herself, she turned to face the one who had delivered the punch.

_Deidara._

"Show us if you're worth it, Sakura! Yeah!" Deidara shouted, leering. Sakura responded by discarding the Akatsuki robe. She let out her breath, a familiar sensation overtaking her. She tried to take on the mentality of Inner Sakura, replacing the fear with willpower and raw anger. There was no way she would stand there and let them punch her to death without kicking back. Inner Sakura colored her vision red, chakra-reinforcing her entire body.

The edges of her mouth twitched into a dangerous smile as she stared him square in the eyes.

Cracking her neck both ways, she snapped back an arm, hitting the rock wall behind her with such force that it split into pieces in all directions. The cracks spread to the center of the floor – even the ceiling – leaving pointy rocks and boulders to fall and slide up from all directions. The members of Akatsuki easily evaded the lethal attacks, however.

Deidara, grinning wildly for some reason, hurled a small piece of clay at her. She caught it, but threw it right back at him. She doubted the clay was as harmless as it looked. He dodged it and, sure enough, a second later a huge explosion followed. Stunned, Sakura's eyes followed Deidara without blinking – she didn't want another one of those clay bombs anywhere near her. Not after seeing the damage it did. But she wasn't the only one being careful. The ceiling had already caved in after her first attack, and so the other Akatsuki members were paying careful attention to the potential newcomer.

But then...

"Hold it," spoke the leader, commanding utter silence.

* * *

**RR**  
Cliffhanger is spelled like this: ajahkgawkgashkUYsbdkabla~


	11. Leaves

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.

I AM SO GLAD I TOOK MY TIME TO REWRITE THIS STORY. Man~

* * *

Leaves

* * *

Tsunade and her group arrived at the summit of the mountain quickly, thanks to Pakkun's nose.

Their chakras were all masked – except for Lee's, since he couldn't control his chakra. He was currently waiting a distance away. When it was time to move in, he'd catch up. Tsunade quickly approached the conspicuously obvious door, trying to listen for any sign of complications inside. For all they knew, all of Akatsuki was in there. The doors were almost as large as the gates of Konoha. Her eyes widened upon hearing something. The entire mountain started to tremble vigorously, like in an earthquake. Shortly thereafter, a large explosion echoed through the wintry air. Tsunade stepped back and the others moved out of her way. Turning, Naruto waved to Lee to signal that it was all right to come closer. The black-haired man quickly came running. Tsunade loaded her chakra to her fists and then charged for the door.

Right before impact, she stopped masking her chakra. Blowing both of the massive stone doors off their hinges, Tsunade watched as they flew into the caved-in room before them.

* * *

Deidara almost got hit by the flying doors, barely making it out of the way. His attention snapped to the entrance, and as did the attention of the other Akatsuki members.

"Itachi," the leader spoke, still hidden in the shadows. "Take care of the woman." In a flash, Itachi moved to Sakura's side, who was glancing everywhere in an attempt to get an overview. But although the soaring doors had caught her off guard, they hadn't been close enough to get in her way.

"Sakura," he said. Upon hearing his voice, her head snapped around and she looked him full in the eyes, her emerald eyes burning intensely.

Then they widened in shock as she was swallowed by the Tsukuyomi-illusion of his Mangekyo.

* * *

The Konoha rescue team moved in through the open door at high speed, no longer masking their chakras. A quick count of the members told Tsunade that there were eight Akatsuki members present. _No, wait – there are nine. _Nine Akatsuki members. Even with Sakura on their own side, it would be eight against nine.

_We're outnumbered._

Glancing over her shoulder, the Hokage flashed a smirk. With Naruto's clones, it would be Akatsuki's nine against the _hundreds _from Konoha_._ She recognized most of the members from files and spying reports. There was the black- and white-skinned Zetsu, a plantlike man. In front of him, a blond-haired man with a ponytail appeared. He was Deidara, a user of explosive clay. Since they were the closest, Naruto and his clones charged against them. Next were some of the newer members, who she recognized as Hidan and Kakuzu. She didn't know anything too special of Kakuzu other than that he consisted of several _parts. _He had more than just a single heart. But they had to look out for Hidan as well, as he was rumored to be unable to die – a zombie of a ninja, so to speak. She frowned as the two came for her. Kakashi joined in against the two of them, with his Chidori and Sharingan ready. Gai went for Kisame, to the blue-skinned fish-man's great annoyance. The loud, green-clad ninja immediately released a couple of his famous 'Chakra Gates', steaming with chakra. Lee ran at a black-haired man with a swirling mask.

Between punches, jutsus and great slams of chakra, Tsunade glanced around the big cave. Where was Sakura? And where was Itachi? Her worry only increased when the others seemed unable to find her, too. Not seeing Itachi anywhere, Sasuke growled and started attacking Zetsu instead, supporting Naruto and his clones.

The one that Tsunade assumed was their leader, as well as a blue-haired woman, had already disappeared.

* * *

Slamming her fist with such force that Kakuzu was hurled out of the cave, Tsunade winced as her knees threatened to give in. That Kakuzu had proven to be much stronger than Tsunade had given him credit for, and he had left her exhausted. Her chakra was running low, too. Catching her breath, she looked around to get an overview of the situation.

Sasuke still had his Sharingan activated, and was in the middle of sending a huge ball of fire towards Zetsu, the Akatsuki member with large leaves shielding him. Naruto's clones distracted the plant-man, but jumped out of the way in the nick of time, barely avoiding the young Uchiha's flames. Once the fireball disappeared, a slightly tired Sasuke watched the mess left behind. Sasuke's expression darkened when his Sharingan confirmed that Zetsu wasn't dead – he'd escaped through the ground. But it was to be expected – he had held back on purpose, after all, avoiding using his Chidori.

He was saving it for his brother.

Kisame had his hands full with a certain Green Beast of Konoha. He swung his sword at Gai, who dodged it time and time again. Gai had opened all of his chakra gates, giving Kisame some serious trouble. But though there was no water nearby, he was able to make use of the snow, which soon left the entire cave flooded.

Naruto and the rest of his clones were once again scattered around the cave by a mind-blowing clay explosion. Some of the clones disappeared, leaving about ten behind, along with the real Naruto. They got up, collecting chakra in their hands, charging at Deidara with war cries louder than the screech of the Rasengans they had formed. Right before impact, Deidara disappeared into thin air, using a replacement jutsu. All the Rasengans hit each other and an extreme light accompanied by a second of complete silence followed. Then, with enormous force, the explosion rippled throughout the entire cave, making the rest of the ceiling cave in – if anyone out there was watching the mountain at that moment, they might have seen the peak of the mountain fall. Before long, Naruto crawled up through the rubble, struggling to free himself, but not quite managing to.

Rocks and stones covered every inch of the floor. Silence and dust were the only things left behind by Naruto's final attack, and not a single voice was heard. After several long seconds, a boulder was smashed by a shaking fist. Tsunade pulled herself up from below, breathing heavily, panting with rage.

"Narutooo!" she shouted, then her eyes fell upon the scene in front of her. Ignoring Naruto's nervous laughter, she let her eyes search for the other ninjas on her team. Before long, she heard a low voice call out "Chidori!" from somewhere under the rocks, followed by a light that soon broke through the layer of stones and boulders in the middle of the cave. Up came Sasuke, now breathing raggedly, holding his side. He got to his feet, his face contorted with rage as he would be too tired to take on his brother in the state he was in. After some seconds he coughed up blood, at which Tsunade quickly moved to his side. Knitting her eyebrows in worry for the others, she started healing him. She was tired, yes, but she still had enough chakra left to heal her teammates if there was a need for it. She just hoped she would have enough left to help the others.

Yet another rock was split by the same attack as Sasuke's, revealing a mud-covered, heavily breathing Kakashi. Because Kisame's water jutsus had overflowed the cave earlier, he was soaked. Kakashi was already using his chakra to dry his clothes, though – the temperature was too low not to. One smash later, Tobi – who had been fighting Lee – came up from the mess of rocks, followed by Kisame. The latter had been lucky enough to not to be hit by any rocks at all. He seemed rather tired, or perhaps annoyed that his fight had been interrupted.

The two groups gave each other long stares.

"I say we move out!" Tobi declared, straightening his mask. He didn't seem wounded at all. "Or we'll be in trouble later!" Kisame just snorted.

"I always get in trouble," he said hoarsely, his voice low. "I'll live." But he was still quick to remove himself from the destroyed hideout, close behind Tobi.

"Should we follow them?" Kakashi asked.

Tsunade sighed. "No. We're already in this state, and we haven't even finished our actual mission. We need to find Sakura," she answered. Sasuke frowned angrily, thinking of his brother.

At almost exactly the same time, two shouts of _"Yaaah!" _were heard, and then two green ninjas busted through several layers of rocks and boulders. Landing next to Kakashi, they both struck poses: With one eye closed, their grins in place and one hand on their hip, they gave the group a thumbs-up. The two of them finished off with their trademark, mercilessly lame and sparkling smiles.

"Even at Akatsuki's hands, we cannot fall until our mission is complete!" Gai declared.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" confirmed Lee.

Ignoring them for the sake of maintaining focus and sanity, Tsunade, Kakashi and Sasuke turned their backs on the two of them and watched, instead, as another member of Akatsuki crawled up from the debris.

"That Kisame-idiot, yeah... Ruining my art with his water jutsus. Yeah," Deidara muttered before noticing the group. Once he did see them he immediately made his way up and away, exiting by means of the hole in the roof, like the others.

"Uuuh..." a deflated-sounding voice sounded. It was Naruto. "C-Could you help me out a bit?" Laughing sheepishly from in between two rocks, the orange-clad ninja scratched the back of his head.

* * *

Plowing through the snow, seething with anger, Itachi tried to put as much distance between himself and the mountain as possible. Sakura was on his back, completely out of it after experiencing his Mangekyo, her chakra pulsing unsteadily.

Though the powerful Tsukuyomi illusion of his Mangekyo only lasted for a second – yet made to feel like an eternity – he'd never expected it to result in something like this.

_The moment the illusion started, they were both left in a spacious, black room in which only the two of them were visible. Knowing what he was doing, Itachi remained the image of calmness as he intently watched her, considering how best to intimidate her. She was no longer wearing her ANBU uniform, but rather a pink getup with black shorts and a beige skirt. On her hands were fingerless leather gloves. None of it seemed out of place._

_What did, however, seem conspicuous, was the mark written upon her forehed._

_**Inner.**_

_Ignoring it, he addressed her._

_"The ruckus outside," he started, his eyes not leaving hers. "Did you cause it? Is it because of you that Konoha ninjas are invading this hideout?"_

_"Nope," she said, almost carelessly. "I just told them where I was. They must've decided on their own to come out here and help me." And she was grinning most strangely – an expression that was entirely out of place not only in a situation like this, but for Sakura in general. It was unlike her._

_Did that word on her forehead have something to do with it? He eyed her again, as if doing so would give him an answer. She did seem different from the normal Sakura. There was even a slight hint of malice in her eyes. It was almost amusing. Who would have thought that the pink-haired girl was capable of such a thing?_

_Then the surroundings flashed and for only part of a second, he glimpsed a tree heavy with pink blossoms._

_Then it disappeared, leaving him with the strange Sakura once more. Scowling at the place where he'd seen the brief vision, Itachi felt his thoughts race. He had not caused that._

_"Would you mind explaining that?" he heard himself ask. "Sakura?"_

_"Wrong!" she exclaimed, looking up at him, a rather cruel smirk in place. "I'm not Sakura. Sakura is outside."_

_He narrowed his eyes, not entirely willing to believe her just like that._

_"What I'm saying is, I'm Inner Sakura," she explained, pointing at her forehead, where the word 'Inner' was nearly shining. The gleeful young woman let her grin widen, showing off a measure of malice he'd never seen in the outside Sakura. Was she lying? Was this really just Sakura trying to keep him from initiating his Mangekyo illusion properly? Because if it was, she'd be disappointed._

_"Oh, look!" she exclaimed._

_Then the scene flashed against, and though it was briefer still than a minute ago, Itachi saw it – the same tree as last time, except the petals had fallen and leaves were growing in their place. Then everything went black again._

_"Aw, geez," complained Inner Sakura. "I wanted to show you lots of cool stuff, but your illusion is too strong for mine to last any longer than that."_

_"What is the meaning behind all this?" he demanded. The fact that his illusion was wavering at all was an subject of major vexation for him._

_"Your Mangekyo controls people's minds, and Sakura's, too. It's not like it doesn't work or anything," this Inner Sakura claimed. "But I'm not Sakura, or Sakura's mind. I'm her subconsciousness! You could even call me her second personality, although Sakura denies that I am," Inner Sakura said, her laugh in the middle between sheepish and evil._

_He found he did not like her._

_"You are different from Sakura," he stated calmly, thinking of her words._

_"Oh? Is that so?" she asked, all ears. "Is that good or bad?" It looked a little like she was trying to act innocent – if she was, she was failing miserably._

_"Bad," he declared._

_"Eh?!" she all but exclaimed, smiling widely as her cheeks gained color. "So you like the outer Sakura?" she asked excitedly, her eyes wide with enjoyment and surprise._

_"Hardly," he countered, minding his words._

_"So you like me better?" she asked, mischievous._

_"Not at all," he said, his patience wearing thin._

_"Then, who do you like the most?" she pried. He didn't reply, but swiftly closed the distance between them and dealt her a kick that sent her flying. The moment she landed, the black space shifted again, once more flashing the tree from earlier. Now, nearly every last of of the leaves had fallen._

_"Shaa..." she breathed. "You know, although dealing physical damage to me won't work, that doesn't mean you can just do something like that all of a sudden."_

_Itachi wasn't paying attention. He was still thinking about the withered scene she'd just caught a glimpse of._

_"That scene," said Inner Sakura, earning his attention. "Don't you think it fits you?"_

_"What?"_

_"Come on," she said. "Before and after? Past and future? From what I know, you used to be quite the big brother, before you went and did you-know-what."_

_It had been a long time since he'd felt his heart harden this much by merely hearing one sentence. He felt stone cold. And it wasn't because he was shocked, or sad._

_He was furious._

_"Are you lecturing me, Sakura?" he asked, fury clear in his burning eyes. The black space shrunk closer. "The Mangekyo illusion has barely started, yet you are lecturing me?"_

_And then the scenery changed, this time at Itachi's will. Before she knew it, they were in a scorching desert – the sun white with heat and the sky molten red, like floating, red-hot liquid. The sand was boiling. Inner Sakura shielded her eyes, her smirk wiped off her face at last._

_"No. No, I'm not," she said. Itachi's eyes narrowed as he eyed her. "I'm just saying all the leaves haven't fallen off the tree just yet, if you know what I mean."_

_He said nothing._

_"You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out."_

_He didn't want to hear something like that from anybody – much less from a subconscious existence as sly as this one. This was a fact he fully intended to relate to her, if not with words, then with his Mangekyo. And he was prepared to do just that, when he took notice of a new disturbance in his illusion. Looking to Inner Sakura, expecting her to be the cause, he was put off when she looked just as wary as him, glancing around. Despite having shielded her eyes earlier – from the burning sun his Mangekyo was projecting – she didn't seem to be taking any form of damage at all. Quickly, he tried remembering everything he'd heard her say, this Inner Sakura who he didn't trust. He couldn't damage _her.

_Then, was he still damaging the Sakura of flesh-and-bones with his illusion? With his rage?_

_The illusion of the Mangekyo would keep its victim enslaved for what felt like three days on end – exactly 72 hours. However, in reality only a second passed. As such, when the victim woke from the illusion, thinking he or she had just endured three days of unimaginable torture, he or she would only experience further shock upon realizing that only a second had passed since the illusion started. The only one able to stop the illusion was Itachi – or the victim, upon death._

_Yet his illusion was wavering, right in front of his eyes. __Gritting his teeth, he did as he had to – he put the jutsu to an end._

What happened next had been even more of a shock.

Plowing through the snowy landscape, Itachi recalled what had taken place after he left the Tsukuyomi illusion.

_Even more stunning than the transition from illusionary desert to actual freezing winter was the sight in front of him._

Sakura was all but kneeling by his feet, drenched in sweat, every muscle trembling vigorously, her glazed-over eyes moving eyerywhere but focusing nowhere. Her chakra was flowing out, strong and irregular, making him unsure as to what was really causing him to be so cold – the winter air or her out-of-control chakra currents. She held on to the front of his cloak with one hand, almost losing hold of it.

The other hand was at his temple, purging chakra from her fingertips and into his left eye, distorting it from the inside.

Quickly he hit her hand away, watching in anger as she fell to the ground, still shaking, her breath hitching.

But he couldn't – even after the shock of seeing her in this state, followed by her doing such thing to his eye – he simply could not afford to lose himself to rage. Only a second had passed since the doors to the hideout had been smashed in, yet there was no time to lose. In his attempt to defeat that Inner part of Sakura's subconciousness, he had instead subjected Sakura to pain extreme enough to bring her to reach for his eye and do such a thing. And perhaps if he hadn't let such a thing happen, he could have left her behind and escaped the scene, leaving her to be reunited with her fellow ninjas. Itachi could easily have come up with an explanation if the leader of Akatsuki asked why he'd left her.

However, with one of his eyes like this – worse yet than it had been before it was healed – he had no choice.

Closing his bad eye, he bent to his knees and hoisted Sakura onto his back, then darted up and out through the now open ceiling.

And now, hours later, they were in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm. It was all he could do to move forward into the wall of white and black, hoping all the while that nobody was giving chase.

Because his course was not steady.

_I have no destination._

* * *

Sakura didn't come to before noon the next day, at which point they were already in the middle of the Country of Rice, near the Hidden Village of Sound, thanks to Itachi's speed.

"Can you walk?" he asked, letting her off his back. Running non-stop for such a long time, with Sakura on his back to boot, had taken its toll on him. He needed to heal his feet before continuing, at the very least.

"I-I don't know, I..." she managed, her voice cracking. She sat on her knees as she held her hands to her head. "Where are we? I can't-..."

"In the Country of Rice," he informed. And since she looked too confused to figure it out herself, "I brought you here from Akatsuki's hideout after using the Tsukuyomi on you. I would have left you, if not for the fact that you caused my eye significant harm in your attempt to make me stop the illusion."

She looked at him, clueless, blinking as her eyes were unable to focus.

"I-I what?" she asked. She didn't even seem like she knew what she was asking about.

_Did my Tsukoyomi cause this? _

One of it's strengths was that it caused irreparable psychological damage, but that only occured after unbearable torture for the entire duration of the illusion. Itachi had stopped it before that. Furthermore, he had done no direct damage to her. Could it be that the reason the so-called Inner Sakura was left undamaged even after he attacked her and subjected her to the torture of dehydration and scorching heat was that the damage was passed on to the real Sakura? Though those were attacks of short duration, he hadn't exactly held back.

_She won't be able to heal me in that state._

"Can you stand?" he tried, reformulating his earlier question.

"Y-Yeah..." she mumbled, moving unsteadily to her feet and checking for damage. At last her eyes regained some measure of focus.

And by the looks of it, they were going to need it.

From the shadows of the trees around them, silhouettes stalked closer until Itachi was able to use his good eye to determine they were from the Hidden Village of Sound. From what he could tell, there were seven chuunins and two jounins.

"You look like you're not all that fit," one of the chuunins said, voice cocky. "There a problem?"

"Careful," said one of the jounins. "One of them is wearing an Akatsuki cloak. Don't underestimate him."

Itachi took one step closer, making everyone tense. Then he looked into the eyes of the one closest to him, a chuunin, and sent him reeling into a genjutsu with his Sharingan. The man froze and within seconds, he fell to the ground, unconscious. The other ninjas instantly moved into fighting stances. Next, Itachi turned to three of the other chuunins, who, in their hurry not to underestimate him, looked into his eyes as well. They were met with his burning eyes, however, and were left to fall into deep sleep instantaneously. The three fell to the ground like heavy rag dolls.

_Three chuunins and two jounins to go.  
_  
"Don't look into his eyes!" one of the jounins commanded, and one instant later they attacked.

Itachi braced himself to meet them, while Sakura faced the chuunins. Ready to fight, Sakura bent down and slammed her fist into the ground.

Nothing happened.

A tremendously awkward break followed.

"Eh?" she said.

Itachi frowned. _Her chakra isn't stable enough?_

The chuunins, slightly confused after seeing her punch the ground, once again moved in her direction with kunais and shurikens in their hands. She dodged and blocked the attacks, sending some of their weapons in return. One of the chuunins was hit in his leg by a kunai, but remained standing. The small injury didn't keep him from attacking her, and so she kept on dodging and jumping out if their way.

Suddenly they sent a set of thin senbon needles at her, and despite covering herself with her ANBU-armored arms, some of them still managed to get stuck in her bare upper arms. Frowning, she pulled them out and threw them back where they came from, trying to heal herself, but failing when her chakra proved to be too unstable. Then a foot came out of nowhere, hitting her square in the face, sending her flying. When she landed, she rolled over and saw the chuunins approach her again.

Itachi turned just in time to see the three chuunins charge towards her. Gritting her teeth, Sakura planted her hands on the ground to get up, unexpectedly releasing an amount of chakra at the same time. The ground cracked and shifted, one rock hitting a chuunin in the chin and a tower of packed earth toppling over one of the other men. The third was swallowed into the ground, with only his head left visible once it all stopped moving.

Sakura watched, dumbfounded.

Smirking, Itachi turned back to his own fight. The first jounin had had some trouble, but was running at him now. Before the jounin could register what happened, Itachi rushed him and drove a foot into his stomach. This stopped the jounin so abruptly that his eyes opened wide, letting Itachi trap him with his Sharingan. The jounin shut his eyes tight, but it was already too late. He was left unconscious, like the others, and Itachi finished his attack by sending the man soaring through the air. He crashed into the other jounin, who was busy putting out a fire caused by Itachi's flame jutsus, knocking him into the nearest tree. The ninjas were down for the count.  
_  
For now, _Itachi thought.

Picking up his pace, he walked past Sakura and continued East. For a few long seconds he thought she wouldn't follow, but soon enough, he heard her steps behind him. Glancing at her over his shoulder, Itachi began to wonder. Now was as good a time as any for her to try to escape and return to Konoha, yet she didn't. Perhaps she doubted she would make it all the way back. After all, Itachi wasn't prepared to let her free that quickly. Maybe she'd try to leave once she'd healed his eye.

"You," she started, "You used your Tsukuyomi on me."

A feeling he could not quite describe passed through him. It was uncomfortable.

"Yes," he said.

When he turned to look at her, she averted her eyes.

"Don't do it again," she said. "Uchiha_-san._" The change in the way she addressed him was not wasted on him – nor was her quiet tone.

Itachi increased his speed.

* * *

In the beginning, Sakura had thought they weren't too far from their destination.

After an entire night of running, followed by a long day of the same, they got to the Cloud Country. The border was ridiculously easy to pass, as the lone guard was asleep. He was sitting on his chair, tilting it back and forth in his sleep, with his arms folded as he snored quietly.

"Uchiha-san," she said once they got out of the guard's hearing range, her voice barely audible. "Where are we going?" she asked, a little louder.

"North-east," he replied, keeping an eye on her.

They continued on their way, not stopping before it was late in the evening. By then, Sakura was utterly exhausted. Since her chakra wasn't very trustworthy, using it on the way had been difficult. They hadn't even had anything to eat along the way. Itachi knew she was at her limit, but had avoided commenting it, resorting to lowering his pace when he found she needed it most. His stamina was nearing its limit, as well. Of course, if she needed a break all she had to do was stop. It was that simple – yet she'd refused to show that sort of weakness.

Again, a stray thought hit him – how could his younger brother not see this woman's strength?

"Where is this?" she asked wearily, feeling more tired than she had ever been before. Her knees trembled as she stumbled after him, her every move sloppy and shaky.

"This is where we will be staying," he muttered in a quiet voice, watching Sakura sway slightly as she looked around in wonder.

They were standing in an open grove right next to a large, dark river. Tall, dry grass surrounded a small house, hidden by overgrown ivy plants. The branches of the trees around the house were all heavy with dense foliage in all the colors of autumn, effectively hiding the house from passers-by. He watched as she took on a confused look. "But what is this place?"

Like he would tell her.

This was a hideout even Akatsuki and Kisame did not know of. In short, a place for him to recover, be it physically or mentally – a hideout that until now had remained out of anyone's knowledge but his own. Part of him disliked this situation, watching in silence as Sakura took in the view. But then she staggered again – as she had done more than just once during their journey – and fell, at last giving in to sleep.

Moving forward to catch her before she hit the ground, Itachi wrapped his arms around her tightly. He scooped her up, letting her head rest against his shoulder while he once again considered his few options. It didn't take long before he made for the small house, opening the door with a worn-out foot. Once inside, he used some of his chakra to light the few lamps. Then he placed Sakura carefully in the only bed in the room. She didn't even stir when he pulled her pouch and backpack off. Her cloak was left in Akatsuki's cave hideout, though, along with her ANBU mask. But there was nothing he could do about that.

Itachi frowned a little as he watched her sleep.

Perhaps her chakra control would get better after a good night of sleep. Sighing, he sealed the small house as a precaution, so she wouldn't try to escape if she were to wake up before morning. His newly distorted eye was of no use at all in the dark, but with the help of his other eye, he was able to produce a few blankets from the drawers. If he wasn't at a hideout or an Inn, he usually slept outside on the ground, so this was all he needed.

Sakura had been able to sleep just fine on the floor back in his and Kisame's hideout, and so he should be able to do so, too, if it was only for one night.

* * *

**RR**

Ayaa~


	12. Spy

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This is just a fan-written story!

Action paction~! This is my favorite chapta~

* * *

Spy

* * *

_A young __Sakura sat in the hospital room, watching over Hatake Kakashi. Some moments ago, he had told her what had happened to him, why he was in such a weakened state. Apparently, two members of Akatsuki had been in Konoha. They went by the names Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi. Upon hearing the latter name, Sakura's had started asking countless questions. _The _Uchiha? The one who had caused Sasuke so much pain?_

_Kakashi told her about the fight – he, Asuma and Kurenai had fought the two Akatsuki members, and then Gai had come to help._

_But Sakura still didn't understand._

_"Why didn't Itachi just kill you?" Sakura asked. Kakashi sighed wearily._

_"I don't know why. Asuma told me that Itachi said he didn't want any unnecessary fighting. Actually, none of us could feel any real killing intent from Itachi until I mentioned their organization, Akatsuki. But then Gai came to our rescue. It seems all they wanted was to find the Fourth's inheritance: Naruto and the Kyuubi that resides in him," Kakashi explained. Sakura just stared at her teacher, her question still unanswered._

_Why hadn't Itachi killed him? He could have if he'd wanted to._

When Sakura woke up, some long seconds passed before she was able to identify where she was. The small house was so dark that she could hardly see anything at all, but she wasn't planning to move just yet anyway. Knitting her eyebrows and narrowing her eyes in concentration, Sakura tried to remember her dream. It was a flashback from way before she, Naruto and Sasuke went separate ways to become stronger. Even back then, Itachi's eyes must not have been in a desirable state.

_If they had been, would he have killed Kakashi? _

If she healed his eyes again, would that be the same as indirectly helping him to kill people? Would she help him kill more people than he already had? Sakura's eyes darkened a little. A new massacre at the hands of this Uchiha wasn't exactly something she wanted, much less if she was a part of it. With those murky thoughts racing in her mind, Sakura pulled her arms closer around her cold form before once again falling asleep.

* * *

Itachi woke up early the next morning. Sakura was still asleep, so he released the barrier he'd made last night and went outside. Though the garden, the grass and the trees around the house had all the hues of autumn on them, the cold wind of winter still hadn't stolen too many leaves. The chilly breeze ran along the ground, touching the plants and cooling the house.

It could start snowing any day now.

He walked around the house and into a small glasshouse hidden in the backyard. Like the garden, it didn'd hold any flowers, but to boot it had fresh plants that carried food. Vegetables and fruits, all of them protected from the cold by the means of many primitive, self-made chakra devices. Itachi could go undercover for weeks anywhere, any time, but even _he _needed food if he hid for any longer than that. If it was here, he could stay for months. After checking on the not-yet fully grown vegetables and fruits, he left the small greenhouse. He had only checked it to make sure everything was as it had been the last time he stopped by. Now he knew no one had been here in the meantime.

After having a look around the garden, river and the overgrown backyard, he returned to the house. With a simple fire jutsu he lit up the fireplace and waited for Sakura to wake up. Itachi had to go to the closest village to do some information-gathering. The Sound ninjas he and Sakura had fought had seen his Sharingan, after all. To add to that, they had recognized his Akatsuki robe. If Itachi couldn't find out whether people were searching for them, he could at least ask around if more ninjas than usual had come from the Fire Country. Perhaps she should have Sakura heal his eyes first, just to be sure.

But he couldn't leave her behind in the small house either, because then she could try to contact her friends in some way. How had she done it last time? Itachi thought of it for a moment, then smirked.

_A summon..._

Itachi looked at the sleeping girl from where he was sitting in front of the fireplace. Sakura was smarter than he had given her credit for. A summon would be able to leave undetected through the barrier he'd made. Itachi blinked. His sight was still blurred, but if he closed his left eye, his vision improved. It was better than nothing, so it had to do for the time being.

The Sound-nins they'd fought knew their identities – both his and probably Sakura's as well, since she'd used her superhuman strength. He wondered if Konoha had any spies in the Sound Country who were good enough to get a hold of _that _piece of intelligence. However, he remained unsure as to how far the information would spread. How reluctant were Sound ninjas in terms of information-sharing? He wasn't sure. For now, he'd just have to assume the two of them weren't safe.

Sakura started moving just then, letting out a tired groan. Sitting up, still fully dressed, she looked around the small house. Once her eyes got used to the dark, she spotted him next to the fireplace, in its shadows.

"Uchiha-san?" she asked. Like before, her way of addressing him made him feel uncomfortable.

"I was planning to have you heal my eye today, but we don't have enough time," he said, ignoring her words – and his own reaction to them. Sakura looked at him, still tired. Itachi continued, "We have to get to the closest town to find out if someone else than the Sound ninjas have caught whiff of where we were heading. There's no time to waste – we will leave once you're ready," he finished in a quiet voice, one eye closed to keep his sight decent.

"But-" Sakura said, but was interrupted as her stomach growled. At this, she blushed. Since when did her stomach ever growl that loudly? The one who was supposed to do that kind of thing was Naruto. Itachi shifted.

"Ah... You can have something to eat once we get to town," Itachi said, his voice a little lighter than usual out of amusement. Sakura frowned, slightly irritated, but mostly embarrassed.

Once she was ready they set out, running under heavy clouds all the way there. The wind was strong and cold, but didn't slow them down. Sakura found her control of chakra was nearly completely recovered.

After half an hour of traveling they arrived just outside of a town. Before going inside, Itachi did some simple hand seals and changed into an uncomfortably familiar set of clothes: He was dressed as a Konoha jounin, green vest and all. The only thing missing was a headband. He deactivated his eyes, signalling for her to transform as well. She did, except she reluctantly changed her hair to a less conspicuous color – brown. The town was much larger than Sakura had thougt it would be – it was at least twice as large as Konoha. Even so, Itachi seemed to know the place quite well, as he continued into the large village with determination.

"Where are we going?" she asked, watching the crowded village with large eyes. It reminded her a little of Konoha, only there were normal people all around instead of ninjas.

"This way," Itachi answered, turning to his left, his destination clear. After an hour or so of walking between different cafés, bars and similar places, they still hadn't heard a single rumor about 'Akatsuki members crossing the borders'. Not even when Itachi bribed them did they have any information to give. But although Sakura felt rested, hunger was really starting to take its toll. How long had she gone without food? It had to be days.

"Um, Uchiha-san... Or, well... Itachi-san..." Sakura mumbled wearily. He didn't stop walking, but glanced over his shoulder. "I'm a little hungry," she admitted.

Itachi continued walking for a few more minutes, but came to a halt when they walked into the shadow of a huge building, resembling an old hall of some sort.

"In here," he said. "You can eat while I search for information. If we can't find information here, we won't find it anywhere. Then we''ll have escaped notice for now," he explained. Sakura smiled in relief, turning to the building. Just as she headed for the large marble stairs, though, Itachi grabbed her wrist. She turned, surprised.

"If we want to get in, this sort of getup won't do," he said, referring to their Konoha ninja uniforms. Sakura inwardly blamed her temporary incompetence on her hunger and gave an awkward laugh as Itachi let go of her. Then he looked around and quickly made some simple hand seals, transforming for the second time that day.

Sakura couldn't keep her eyes from widening at his new appearance.

_Ooh..._

Itachi wore a jet-black suit, his jacket left open to reveal a black, fitted vest and a gray shirt underneath. His ponytail remained, a little higher than usual. The Sharingan was off like before, leaving his dark eyes as perfectly suitable substitutes for the red ones. Without a word, he turned away from the momentarily stunned Sakura and moved swiftly up the stairs.

What about her?

_**Dumping us, ha?! **_Inner Sakura chanted, waving a fist.

Sakura flashed a frown to nobody in particular, but looked around to see if anyone was watching, then set to make some hand seals of her own. Her Konoha ninja uniform vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a simple, black halterneck dress, as jet-black as Itachi's suit. It went down to her knees or so. Frowning, she hesitated. Wasn't this sort of below par? Not satisfied, she tried again, thinking of all the dress shops Ino had hauled her to over the years. This time, she reappeared with a long one-shoulder dress, black and silken as the surface of water, with a split running all the way up one of her tighs. Her hair was in a wide bun, circled by a braid. From the center of the bun, long, pink corkscrews of hair hung down loosely. She figured it was all right to keep her hair pink, since it was long this time – she usually had short hair. Then at least people wouldn't recognize her as Sakura from the Bingo Book. Not right away, anyway. Her hair bun had black senbon needles in it, just in case something happened that might require such a weapon.

After receiving an A-OK from Inner Sakura, Sakura walked up the white marble stairs on black high heels.

Before going inside she hesitated, but the guards just flashed lopsided smirks at her when she entered, so she was able to pass without trouble. If not for her pink hair, she probably wouldn't have stood out so much, or so she thought. Was there a mirror anywhere? Maybe she should have kept her hair brown, after all? Judging from how things looked inside, a high-end formal party was going on. Wealthy people were everywhere, all wearing the most expensive jewelry and brands so costly she hadn't even heard of them. Many of the guests were being escorted by ninjas, some better hidden than others. In a place with this many important people, there had to be loads of information. If Itachi couldn't find any here, that was because there wasn't any. And that would mean they were safe. She wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not, as that meant her friends in Konoha wouldn't know where she was, either. Looking around for something to eat, she walked to the closest bar.

Before she even got there, the man behind the desk was all ears – and eyes. When she asked him where she could get food, he gestured in the direction of a nearby table, smiles all the way.

When Sakura walked towards the table, her hunger grew tenfold. There was so much to choose from. While looking at the food, she started wondering just what kind of party this was. It could be a marriage, or perhaps the birthday of some important person. Maybe an event held by the mayor, even. Whatever it was, the food looked extragavant. No, it looked so extraordinary it seemed insufficient to even call it _food_. Sakura grabbed the closest thing she knew how to eat: a strawberry flavored cupcake. It went down in a blink, leaving Sakura elated at the unbelievable taste. Starting with the sweet food probably wasn't a very good idea, but it tasted too good to be left alone, so she had another one. She couldn't help but smile at the flavor. It had been ages since her last proper meal. Not that cupcakes counted as proper food...

In the large hall were people of all kinds. Now that she looked closer, Sakura even recognized a couple of the feudal lords, some of which weren't even from this country. Music was playing in the background, and slowly people made their way to the middle of the room and started dancing in couples.

Someone poked her shoulder, making her jump slightly. When she turned around, she met the friendly gaze of a tall man wearing a dark gray suit. He smiled at her.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, his voice gentle. Sakura was about to say no thanks. "Please, I insist," he said, the smile still on his face. Sakura nodded slowly, a little suspicious of this stranger, and they went to the middle of the room. Perhaps he was Itachi. Or maybe he was a ninja from somewhere else?

_No, wait._ This guy was no ninja. His chakra was too untrained. Living with two S-rank criminals had made her a little paranoid, it would seem.

Her suspicions faded altogether when they started dancing, and though they were not at all the best dancers on the floor, she had fun. Even so, she felt a little uncomfortable around the friendly man. He was a little too kind, in a way. She wasn't used to that sort of behavior. Also, she was still hungry enough to put even Naruto's hunger to shame. They danced for a while, then the music slowed down and came to a temporary halt. Sakura couldn't help but be relieved and decided to try and get away from the crowd of dancing people now that she had the chance – and preferably not return any time soon. But just as she was making her way out of there, someone grabbed her arm.

Sakura grit her teeth for a split second. Why hadn't she been able to avoid that? With a fake smile that hopefully looked real enough, Sakura turned around. Two Sharingan eyes caught her emerald ones before his arms closed around her, embracing her as a part of the slow dance. Sakura stiffened.

_Itachi?_

Why was he doing this? Shouldn't he be gathering information? Sakura's mind filled with countless questions. Could it be that Itachi was just trying to confuse her, like he had done back in the waterfall hideout? To his own gain, in order to make her more willing to heal his eyes? The possibility made her frown a little.

Had he changed his clothes? She couldn't remember him wearing a double-breasted suit... The color was different, too.

"Um," she mumbled, tilting her head back to see him. All color drained from her face upon looking into his eyes and her knees almost failed under her, causing her to trip slightly.

The one looking back into her wide eyes was the _youngest _of the two Uchiha brothers.

* * *

Itachi had gathered enough rumors and information to conclude that 'the two Akatsuki members', himself and Sakura, were indeed known. The information had made its way into the Cloud Country, but he did not know if it had reached Konoha just yet. There was nothing more he could find out here, at least. For now, they had to retreat. He needed to find Sakura. As soon as they got back to the house, he had to make her heal his eye, one way or another. Then he wanted to question her about the events in the cave, about what had really happened with his Tsukuyomi illusion. Who was this _'Inner Sakura'? _Though it wasn't strictly necessary information, it interested him.

A quick look towards the food table and then the bar revealed that she must be somewhere else. As if on cue, he felt a sudden pulse of her chakra – no one else seemed to have noticed, however, so he moved in its direction. It seemed to come from the dance floor. He scanned the small crowd and quickly found Sakura's pink hair. She was dancing with someone.

Judging from her chakra she was in a state of surprise, or she was feeling uncomfortable. From his position, he could glimpse her hair, but not her face, nor the face of the man with whom she was dancing. Itachi could only see his back, and the man had masked his chakra perfectly. He was most likely of jounin rank or higher, if Itachi were to make a guess.

But if was up to him, Itachi's medic wasn't going anywhere.

At least not until after she had healed him, he added to himself, though something about that statement made him frown at himself.

* * *

Sakura was breathing unsteadily, but quietly.

"What are you _doing _here?!" she whispered hysterically, as quiet as possible.

"Are you alone?" Sasuke asked, his voice smooth, his Sharingan never leaving her emerald orbs. It felt as though he could read her thoughts. He was holding her unnecessarily close.

"No! If I were alone, I would be on my way home already!" she answered quickly, then glanced around. "Is there anyone else here from Konoha?" she asked, trying to calm down a little.

"No. I was sent on a spying mission," he answered silently, his voice monotone. "Solo." Then his eyes darkened considerably.

"Where is he?" he demanded. Sakura's eyes widened as her eyes flickered around the room.

"I-I don't know!" she answered, which was true. At this, Sasuke pulled Sakura out of the growing crowd of dancing people, dragging her along to the closest open balcony, his grip around her wrist just a little too hard. Though the doorway was open, it was shielded from view by a long veil, billowing softly in the cold wind.

"Stay here," Sasuke said coldly. "I'm going to find Itachi." He was about to go back inside again, but then she spoke up.

"Wait!" Sasuke looked over his shoulder, slightly annoyed. "Y-You can't defeat him! He's still too strong for you to take him on by yourself!" she stammered, her voice alarmed. His face darkened upon hearing her words.

"Are you trying to keep me from avenging the murder of my family, Sakura?" he asked coldly.

_Like knives in the heart..._

"No!" she said, gritting her teeth. "I'm just saying you shouldn't attack Itachi-san alone. Bring me back to Konoha instead! I can tell you about his hideouts when we're... there..." she said, hesitating the more she talked, because all of a sudden, Sasuke's face was taking on a completely different expression. Slowly, deliberately, he walked closer.

"Did I just hear you call him Itachi_-san_?" he asked unbelievingly. Sakura's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to protest. "Let me see... If you call him _that, _and if he's letting you strut around that freely in _there, _he must trust you very much, Sakura." He stopped right in front of her.

"What are you talk-"

"Whose side are you on, _Sakura?_" he said, his eyes looking into hers with rage. It took her breath away. Her courage, too – it was slipping away, just like that.

"I..." she started, stunned at what he was suggesting. When she didn't know how to reply, Sasuke frowned in anger.

"You!" he exclaimed. Sakura, frightened, walked backwards towards the door leading inside. Seeing this, Sasuke grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the wall, pinning her to the cold surface, his weight heavy against her. She gasped in shock as he leaned closer.

"You _do _realize that if you're with him, that makes you my enemy as well?" he said, barely audible. His face moved closer to hers, showing hatred – but more than that; disappointment. "_His _allies are _my _enemies," Sasuke warned in a low voice.

"Even..." he whispered, his breath tickling her neck, "Even _you._"

Ignoring the stabbing pain in her heart, Sakura concentrated chakra into her arms and pushed him off her. "How could you even _think _that, Sasuke," she said, her voice trembling – but with anger, not sadness. Before he could conjure a reply, she hurried back inside, leaving the frowning Sasuke on the balcony. After making her way past the long veil of a curtain, having slight troubles getting through it, she ran into the crowd of dancing people, her chakra leaving a faint track behind her. She tried to hide it, but it was hard, especially when she was feeling like this. Turning her head, she saw him in the balcony door and ducked to avoid his sight. Once again she hid her chakra, with more success this time. When she charged forward again, it didn't take long before she bumped into someone's chest.

"Ow!" she exclaimed quietly, looking up, ready to apologize.

It was Itachi.

"Itachi!" she exclaimed, forgetting the honorifics, at which his eyes widened considerably. Of all _possible_ feelings one could have upon bumping into an S-ranked member of Akatsuki who was also a serial murderer, Sakura felt _relief._

Itachi blinked as he saw the pink-haired ninja. What was she doing, ducking down in such a fashion? Was she hiding from that ninja she danced with before? Itachi's eyes narrowed as she smiled in a pleased way upon seeing that it was _him _she had bumped into. Had she eaten only food with alcohol in it? Sakura grabbed his upper arms, glancing around before adressing him. Itachi just looked at her, completely calm.

On the outside, that is. Try as he might, he couldn't deny that she looked positively stunning.

"We have to go! There's a Konoha ninja here, and he knows who I am, and that you're here!" she said. Itachi frowned.

"Why tell me?" he asked. "You could just have joined him and returned to your village." At those words, her smile faltered and her grip on his upper arms ceased somewhat. She looked surprised. Then she shook her head, frowning.

"But he thinks I'm on your side! He thinks I've betrayed Konoha by joining you!" she exclaimed, trying to stay quiet, but unable to hold back a few mutters that he was sure was about the Bingo Book info he and Kisame had procured about her.

"Even if he is a Konoha ninja, why should we leave now? I should use my genjutsu to make him forget he saw you here," Itachi said calmly, his voice deep and quiet. For some odd reason, he found himself thinking that this rare satisfaction had to do with her dependent grip on his arms. She was counting on him.

"No! No... You can't!" she said, trying to be quiet. "He's skilled enough to counter almost any genjutsu..." Itachi eyed her. They were standing on the middle of the dance floor, hidden by many others. Even so, she looked nervous about this person finding them. There was a possibility that she was hiding essential information from him, and he was going to find out what.

"Sasuke?" he asked silently. Sakura raised her head and looked him directly in the eyes. Her grip on his arms tightened.

"_Please _don't hurt him!" she pleaded, eyes wide and desperate as she searched his. He turned away and scanned the place. Sasuke thought Sakura was on Itachi's side?

_Just how much of a fool is he?_

But Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

"Why not?" he asked. "You said he thinks you're on _my _side." Which was a fact that made him feel rather content.

"But he's still my teammate! My friend!" she said. Itachi froze as he caught sight of his brother. Without hesitation, he turned around and left, leaving Sakura behind. He had to lure his brother outside.

"Stop, please!" she said as she followed him, even now trying to be quiet. "If you hurt him, I'll _never _heal your eye!" she blurted out. He stopped, not turning to her.

"And what if _he_ hurts _me_?"

"Then," she started, inner turmoil taking control of her scattered thoughts. "I will _never _forgive him." She was frowning deeply, as if in pain.

This answer took Itachi by surprise.

Her words left him still for some long seconds, just enough for her to transfom into a getup that took him by surprise yet again: Suddenly she was wearing an Akatsuki robe, on her head a strawhat with paper strips around the edge that effectively hid her face. But he didn't need to see her face to know who she'd transformed into. Before he could recover from the surprise, she made for the exit.

And before she even made it that far, Sasuke whizzed past him, charging after Sakura in the belief that she was him – Itachi.

* * *

**RR**

Oh noes~


	13. Leaf

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

**'KAI' means 'release'. **  
Fu-fu-fu~

* * *

Leaf

* * *

Wearing an Akatuski cloak, a paper-veiled straw hat and the appearance of Itachi in order to deceive Sasuke, Sakura rushed forward with all the force and speed she could muster. Almost blinded by the quickly falling snow, Sakura charged ahead, aiming, at the very least, to get out of town before they clashed. While running, she wondered whether it was just the cold, or if it was the immense killing intent of the younger of the Uchiha brothers that chilled her so – it was making her cold to the core of her bones. As soon as she got out of town and out of sight, she glanced over her shoulder.

And that was all it took – a miniscule decrease of speed was the only thing Sasuke needed to catch up.

With his Raikiri alight, dreadful shadows covered his face as he mercilessly drove his hand towards her. Time seemed to slow several paces as he closed the gap between them. Struck speechless, somehow hoping he would notice it was her and not Itachi, Sakura only stared as the ligthing-encased hand pierced through the air, not losing speed even as it tore through the fabric of her cloak, the harder material of her ANBU vest and all the way through to her flesh. And even then, Sasuke didn't stop. Instinctively she pushed his arm in a half-vain attempt at saving her vital organs.

Crying out, or rather coughing in pain as her transformation jutsu reversed and she reappeared as herself in her ANBU uniform, Sakura gave him a mid-air kick in the gut to get him off her. The kick was weak, more so than she liked, but it did the trick, because her appearance had him off track already.

Touching down on her feet and barely staying there, she watched as Sasuke, too, landed on his feet, though more steadily by far than herself.

"Sa-Sakura?" he exclaimed, though she couldn't tell which was more apparent in his voice – shock or anger.

_This is no good,_ she thought, her consciousness already slipping. _At this rate, I'll faint and those two will fight to the death. _That's right – this was a matter of life or death. If she didn't do anything, one, or maybe even two people who had become important to her would die.

_There's no way I can let that happen._

She would give this her all.

_All I have._

Frowning in pain, she poured chakra into her wound, healing it quickly, not caring if it would leave a scar. Gritting her teeth, she glanced at Sasuke. She let her knees fail, making it seem all the more realistic by forcing herself to focus on the pain. It worked better than she had dared to hope. Soon he came running. For a second, old flames lit up in her heart, but only until she saw his face. She could see a hint of worry, she really could – but most off all, there was rage.

"What did you do?!" he demanded, grabbing her shoulders and barely keeping himself from shaking her. "Why are you helping him?"

Sakura waited a litte before answering – just long enough for her blood to start trickling from her mouth. Unexpectedly, some came running from her nose too. It couldn't be helped – he'd hit her lungs, after all. At least his expression changed a little when he saw it.

"I didn't help him," she said, voice uneven, "I helped you."

He looked at her, his red eyes flickering. He didn't understand.

"Itachi made me heal his eyes," she continued, her voice quiet. "The way he is now, you stand no chance against him in a fight. I – don't look at me like that – I don't want you to get hurt."

Again, he looked like he wanted to shake her. He didn't, though, but his silence only told her what she already knew – that he didn't want to listen to her.

"If you want to fight him alone, head on, go get stronger first!" she exclaimed, making a pained expression while continuing to heal herself. The wound was almost completely healed, but Sasuke didn't need to know that – she would just let him think she was a slow medic.

_And now for the most underhanded trick of all..._

He was going to hate her for what she was going to do next. She might even look back later and regret it some herself:

"No matter what you think," she whispered, earning a confused look. "I'm on your side." But she was on Itachi's, too. And then she gave him a giant punch in the stomach, holding nothing back. The sickening crunches of several ribs ricocheted throughout the forest, followed by a gut-wrenching cough. Sasuke was lifted off his feet and staggered backwards, then landed in a heap on the ground, hands grasping at his stomach and chest in a futile attempt to ease the pain. Sending intense, furious glares at her, he tried to get up, but found his legs wouldn't listen. His Sharingan, too, was deactivated, which seemed to confuse him.

The effects of the medical punch weren't few.

They were generally weaker than the usual chakra-powered techniques, but in return they yielded frightening results in the form of a severely disturbed chakra flow. Sasuke's chakra system would be down for the count, but not for long – Sakura had no time to lose.

Itachi chose that moment to appear from the shadows, coming to an abrupt stop when he saw the two of them.

"Sakura?" he asked, looking at her face – at all the blood trickling down from her mouth and falling from her chin. His gaze travelled to his younger brother, his eyes unreadable.

Still enraged, Sasuke forced himself up and, even without his Sharingan, made for Itachi. Sakura saw the older one activate his eyes and adapt a fighting stance, his aura frighteningly intense. He wasn't joking around. "Stop!" she shouted, running at them with chakra-powered feet, making her way to stand in between them. Sasuke stopped, glaring at her – she ignored it, her eyes flashing between them quickly, intentionally avoiding the red eyes of the older one.

"Move it, Sakura!" Sasuke shouted.

Gritting her teeth, she touched her thumb to the blood running from her mouth, then put it to her forehead and smeared on a quick, sloppy seal. Then she started making hand seals.

"Get out of here," Sasuke demanded, just a little calmer, pain still on his face. "You'll only get hurt. This isn't something someone like you can handle."

The moment he'd finished talking, she finished the last hand seal.

"Kai," she muttered, Sasuke's words momentarily sending her mind into shambles of old memories.

Sakura shut her eyes in a frown and lowered her head so they couldn't see her face. Did Sasuke really think she was the same little weakling from back then? The same genin who fainted just from seeing a mere illusion of him being badly hurt? The little girl who cried at the thought of not seeing him again, and who knew no medical justus and who had no strength at all? Even after seeing how she did in the ANBU exams and after witnessing her kill off Orochimaru? Itachi and Sasuke observed her as she threw her head back, her neck cracking. Her eyes opened, but only to slits. Itachi's eyes widened in realization, earning him a bold smirk from Sakura.

Or should he say, _Inner Sakura._

"_**What's this?**_" she asked teasingly, her grin sly. "_**This is no good, you know?**_" Sasuke just glared.

"What did you do, just now? You," he said. "You feel different. What's with that sign?" he muttered, getting annoyed. Itachi had yet to say a word, looking at the 'Inner' sign on her forehead that his brother was referring to. Satisfied, Sakura, or Inner Sakura, punched her open hand, grin growing ever wider.

"_**Wanna know?**_" she asked. Before any of the two could reply, Sakura disappeared into thin air, then reappeared behind Sasuke, her fist going for his back. Surprised, he just barely avoided it, jumping out of the way, but falling because of the earlier hit to his stomach.

Itachi went into a fighting stance, knowing she wouldn't hesitate to come for him as well. It didn't take a genius to guess she wanted to knock him and Sasuke out before they started a battle that might end in death for one of them.

Her eyes still slits, Sakura, or _Inner _Sakura rammed her fist into the ground, burying it down to the elbow. From where she stood, a wave of snow-clad mud and earth-covered boulders started to rise and sink, expanding until it reached the two brothers. As Itachi jumped into the air to avoid it, Sakura instantly appeared behind him, lashing out to kick him in the side. Amused, he grabbed her foot, only to feel her chakra sending violent tremors throughout his entire body. Still in mid-air she used her other leg to try kicking him again. This time he dodged, watching as she swiftly produced a kunai with an explosive tag on it from her pouch.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was crawling up from the cracks left behind by Sakura's unexpectedly strong attack earlier. Coughing and bleeding, covered in mud, but still determined to fight, he glanced up to see her fighting Itachi.

"Sa-..." he started, then held back. Perhaps she was distracting Itachi so Sasuke could finish him off? Sasuke smirked, but just as he made to step forward, an overwhelming nausea overcame him, sending him toppling to the broken ground. Clutching at his stomach, paralyzed by a pain that was sickening rather than agonizing, he quietly cursed this state and the one responsible for it. He couldn't even activate his Sharingan.

Now with their feet planted firmly on the ground, Sakura and Itachi were in the middle of a string of attacks. Itachi had cuts and scratches all over him, none of which were too deep. Sakura, on the other hand, had fewer than him by far, though hers were deep gashes rather than scrapes. Even despite all his small cuts, she couldn't help but thin he was holding back. Although her narrowed eyes were still in place, her grin was replaced with a thoroughly annoyed scowl.

"**Why,**" she asked, slashing at him with a kunai, "**are you,**" she continued, kicking him when she dropped the kunai, then blocking a punch. "**holding back?!**"

"If I kill you," he retorted between one of his kicks and one of her punches. "Who will heal my eye?" He was a good dodger, verbally as well as physically. Sakura frowned, jumping back all of a sudden. For a second the two of them observed each other, both panting. Sakura's ANBU vest was all tattered, her top full of holes – half of one of her arm protectors was even missing where he'd cut her. The blood running from her gashes was so fresh that they were all but steaming in the cold.

"**Seriously,**" Sakura muttered. After shutting her eyes for a brief moment, she slowly walked towards Itachi. He braced himself, but remained where he was. As she came to a halt right in front of him, he half expected her to go for a punch, but instead she held out an open hand right in front of his face. He didn't budge, determined to see this through to the end. If she hurt him he'd repay her – it was as simple as that.

But then her chakra started flowing at high speed from her hand to his face, entering his eyes. Alert, Itachi stepped back, but the chakra had already made it to its destination. It concentrated in his damaged eye and was quickly starting to heal it. His eye was being _restored. _Taken aback by this sudden move, half expecting her to send his eyes to ruing any second, he frowned. The chakra was Sakura's, indeed, yet it was significantly more concentrated. Was that caused by the release of 'Inner Sakura'? Watching her hand hovering in front of his face, he remained unmoving until Sakura stopped healing him. His eye was once again perfect, though this time it had taken less than a minute to restore it, and Itachi hadn't even turned the Sharingan off to give his eyes a rest while she was at it.

Once her chakra stopped flowing, her expression hardened and her eyes brightened.

"**Don't you ever dare,**" she said, voice clear as she poked him in the ribs, "**to lay hands on **_**any **_**of my friends.**" Finally being close enough, she thrust her fingers deep into his stomach – loaded with chakra – and sent him flying. As he landed, he rolled through the cold, new snow until his back hit the trunk of a tree with a thud. This sort of medic punch was effective – that is, if she could even call it a medic punch. Its effects were the complete opposite of healing, after all, and now she was feeling more rotten than she had felt after healing Itachi's eyes for the first time. Normally, her techniques were solely for healing, pain relief or to forcibly make people fall asleep. Only now, considering the fact that the circumstances were rather difficult, the punch had been more powerful by far.

Thanks to Inner Sakura, she'd managed just the right speed, too – now Itachi wasn't moving. If the two of them ever fought it out again, she doubted he'd hold back like he had this time. He would crush her.

_Not that I _want_ to fight him._

Then she turned to Sasuke, walking closer as he tried sitting up, but failed. He was curled up on his side, frowning in disblief at her, his eyes flashing every so often in Itachi's direction. Ignoring the sinking feeling in her chest, Sakura closed her eyes and focused. Then she made the hand seals for a jutsu normally reserved for Naruto – the Shadow Clone jutsu. But whereas her blonde friend made hundreds of them like it was no big deal, it was all she could muster to make a single one. It appeared in a puff of smoke, wearing the same ANBU uniform as her, only it wasn't torn – and her clone wasn't injured. That was a start.

"Why... What did you just do?" he demanded when she bent to her knees by his side.

"**I ****took him out**," she said. "**Though if that one's really him and not a clone, he'll be up and running within a matter of seconds.**" The latter was half a lie – she didn't know how long it'd take Itachi to recover from that hit, but she had better be fast anyway.

Sasuke glanced at her Shadow Clone. "What's that for?"

"**It's to carry the Uchiha back home,**" she answered, quiet now.

"What? Itachi?" he asked. "Home?" That didn't make any sense.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke watched her with suspicion as she reached out and placed her hands on his stomach. Quickly healing the worst damage, she watched as Sasuke relaxed somewhat, then she moved her hand to his forehead. That earned her another suspicious look, but not one that lasted: Before Sasuke knew what hit him, she sent him off into a dreamless sleep and watched as he sunk into an unconscious heap. Whoever said a medic couldn't fight? This was how medics worked if they didn't have any painkillers or drugs left. But saying she felt good about this small victory would be a lie.

Letting her head fall, she let out a shaky sigh as the 'Inner' mark on her forehead faded. A sad frown settled on her face as she returned to her normal self.

She was a blatant cheater, and if someone wouldn't hate her for the rest of her life for what she'd just done, she'd begin to wonder.

"You know what to do," she said to her clone, who kneeled next to her without a word and hoisted one of Sasuke's arms over her shoulder, supporting him as she stood up again. "Take him back to Konoha." Then, after a brief pause, "And tell my friends I'm on my way, too."

"Yes," said the clone, lacking the strength of character that Naruto's clones had. Then she took off, her grip around Sasuke strong. Sakura just hoped the clone would last all the way.

Turning around, she saw that Itachi was still at the foot ot the tree he'd crashed into. Walking closer to his unconcious form, she wondered whether she'd hit him just a little too hard in her Inner Sakura form. She frowned at the thought. The two brothers were the ones who'd underestimated her, and so those punches were what they deserved. That didn't keep her from worrying a little as she bent down next to him, though. What should she do? Heal him right away, or take him with her out of here? Now that she thought of it, she could even leave him behind and make for Konoha if she wanted to.

Her decision was made for her, however, as she suddenly heard people approaching. Her head spun around as she listened to the shouts – they were getting closer by the second.

Then she gasped as a hand grabbed her wrist. Itachi's frowning eyes met hers, now completely black. His Sharingan was deactivated.

"I-Itachi!" she exclaimed, forgetting the honorific.

He opened his mouth, but didn't reply.

She quickly – and guiltily – concluded that she had broken his ribs and punctured his internal organs, as blood came running from his mouth. But if she had held back against the two Uchihas, they would still be fighting even now, right?

"Itachi-san... I'm sorry, but that punch was the only way to make completely sure that both of you lived-" she rushed, glancing over her shoulder. "Sasuke-kun is on the way to Konoha with my clone now." His eyes narrowed slightly. He'd heard the people who were approaching, too. They were close.

With his unnecessarily strong grip still around one of her wrists, Sakura moved her other hand to Itachi's chest. Forcing out most of her remaining chakra, she did a quick, temporary healing of his broken ribs and a punctured lung. Then, after wordlessly prying his fingers off her wrist, she moved one of his arms over her shoulders and helped him to his feet. He seemed to only be semi-conscious – an effect no doubt caused by her medical punch.

_Please let this work..._

Sakura borrowed one of Itachi's hands and made the hand seals of the easiest jutsu she knew: Kawarimi no jutsu. The two switched places with an old tree trunk that was as far away as possible. That way they wouldn't leave tracks in the new snow. Then, while supporting the temporarily disoriented Itachi, she ran as fast as she could out of there.

* * *

At first she thought they'd passed Itachi's hideout a long time ago, because it felt like they'd been moving for hours. But after a long time of plowing through the growing carpet of snow, Sakura stopped under a tree with suspiciously many leaves and took some deep breaths. That tree meant they were very close to the small house, didn't it? So far, they only passed forests of trees with naked branches. But even now, with this small a distance to a safe hideout, she needed a break before moving on. After carefully lowering Itachi to the snowy ground, she noticed that he was awake, but that blood was still running from his mouth, fresh and redder than his Sharingan. Her eyes widened and she rushed to heal him again. From what she could tell, it seemed as if she had not only broken his ribs, which in turn had damaged his lungs, but she had also given him some internal injuries.

_Stupid __Inner Sakura! Why the heavy hits?!  
__**He deserved it after underestimating you. Besides, he's not going to die no matter how much we try to kill him, right?**_

Sakura forced out the very last bit of chakra she could muster to heal Itachi completely. Though it didn't take more than a few minutes, she was at her limit after finishing. She didn't have a shred of strength left. Tilting her head up a little, she could see him watch her.

His eyes were unreadable as usual.

"Both of your eyes are healed, and so are your wounds," she said, voice tired. "I'm... I'm leaving now, Itachi." She got to her feet, shortly followed by Itachi, who tested his feet before trusting them completely.

And then, just as she made to leave, Itachi stepped in front of her. Despite seeming a little unsteady, he was effectively blocking her path, his eyes clear and dark.

Sakura backed away, wary. She didn't have the energy for another bout.

"Let me ask you about something, Sakura," he spoke, never letting go of her gaze. "Why didn't you _kill _me?" Somehow, his voice was dark and unfamiliar.

"You... You wouldn't understand," she answered silently, truthfully, frowning as she looked away. "Let's just say that I still have hopes for you."

Itachi remained silent until she looked at him again. He looked to be completely in control of his limbs, now – being a ninja that skilled, it was no wonder he regained full balance that fast. As she once again looked away, he frowned. He still didn't speak, however, and it was making Sakura uneasy.

And just a little bit irritated.

She started walking again, making to walk past him, but he stepped in her path one more time.

"Tell me the real reason you let me live," he demanded quietly, voice low and intent. Sakura turned to look into back into his eyes, frowning.

She looked hurt.

"Because... I like you," she whispered, frowning. He didn't move, nor respond, which made her frown deepen. "A lot," she added, embarrassed as she looked away yet again. Itachi blinked.

"Just... Just forget it," she said, barely audible. "It's not like it's important. I'll get going now."

Unable to bear the silence that followed, she lowered her face and walked past Itachi quickly, wading through the snow. Why had she even bothered to say that? Gritting her teeth, Sakura increased her pace, stumbling in things hidden from view by the snow. Confessing one's love to an S-rank criminal who was also an infamous missing-nin and mass murderer wasn't exactly the smartest thing one could do. It was stupid – completely unheard of, as a matter of fact. It wasn't like he even understood what she was saying.

She didn't walk more than a few steps before someone tugged at her.

Surprised, she turned to Itachi, half expecting a breakneck Tsukuyomi illusion. Instead, she looked into his bottomless, faded black eyes – eyes searching hers intently.

"Stay," he muttered silently.

She lost her breath.

Torn between unexpected joy and a strange variation of fear, she asked, "What?"

"Stay," he repeated, then seemed to half reconsider. "For now."

And somehow, that last bit didn't seem all that honest. But that didn't change the fact that she'd promised to return to Konoha. Her friends were waiting for her.

Giving a sad smile, she moved just a little closer, searching his face with her emerald gaze. Hesitating, and more so than ever, she leaned closer and left him a kiss, half on his mouth, half on his cheek. It left him frowning – an altogether different frown compared to his usual ones. It warmed her heart. Taking his lack of reply as a silent goodbye, she turned to leave, walking towards the forest surrounding his small hideout.

But after only two steps, Sakura was turned around and pinned to the tree closest to her by a still frowning Itachi. She gasped in surprise, her eyes wide.

"What-What're you doing?!" she stuttered, making to push him off.

A small smirk broke through Itachi's frown of a facade just then. He bent forward and kissed her, his mouth soft against her lips. Sakura froze, not daring to move. In all corners of her mind, alarms were going off – loud and blazing. His grip on her wrists was loose. If she wanted to, she could shake him off and stomp to Konoha in a rage. But she didn't feel like she needed to. After Itachi broke their kiss, he let his forehead rest against hers as he waited for a reaction. At first she didn't dare to look him in the eye, afraid her blush would grow. Then she reached forward sheepishly, tugging at his tattered Akatsuki cloak.

He gave a deep, soft laugh at that, and lifted a hand to her face to wipe some of the blood from her mouth.

As he shifted, her back slipped off the tree and soon they landed in the freezing snow, his weight knocking the air out of her lungs. Moving back, he pulled her up so she was sitting between his legs in the snow, feeling awfully small for a jounin-level ninja all of a sudden. He leaned against her shoulder, lips tracing the curve of her neck. When she trembled and tried to squirm out of the way, he pulled her closer, his breath warm against her skin.

"N-No good," she managed weakly, pushing him over into the snow, ending up looking down at him. He shut his eyes, smiling. She would have smiled back, if not for the fact that when his eyes opened, the most mischievous smirk was on his face.

Next thing she knew, Itachi's arms were around her and she was being lifted up. With slow strides he made for the small hideout, holding her so close she blushed furiously at the proximity. To her surprise he didn't open the door – instead, he pinned her against it, leaning against her until the door started creaking, using his feet to push closer yet. Then he reached out and opened it, almost making them fall again. He continued into the room, pausing for a bit.

Then, unexpectedly, he turned around and lowered her down until her feet touched the ground. Watching her nervous expression with an unreadable face, he reached for something she couldn't see.

Then he moved a cloth to her face and silently started wiping her blood off. The cloth was clean, but dry, and so it didn't do an awfully good job, but Itachi took his time, his eyes growing more distant by the minute. She realized she might have looked a little frightened earlier – this being the first time she'd been kissed like that – with feeling. Staring back, she wondered if, perhaps, he'd stopped himself for that reason. Not saying a word, she looked him in the face. He wasn't looking back, he was too busy looking at the dried-up blood in her face – and she at the blood in _his _face.

But whereas the blood he was wiping away was from a wound given her by Sasuke and not him, Itachi's wounds were _her fault. _It was agonizing.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, gritting her teeth as she averted her eyes. "For hurting you."

Itachi paused for a good moment, then let the cloth fall to the floor as he cupped her chin and made her look at him.

"It's all right," he said, almost smiling – even his eyes. "So long as it was enough to etch me deeper into your mind than my brother." She let go the breath she'd been holding, her cheeks goings so red she wanted to turn the other way.

But both of them knew that one matter still remained: She had promised to return to Konoha.

_A promise like that isn't easy to break._

* * *

**RR**

Love, not lust! (-shifty eyes-)


	14. Petal

Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto at all.

Reviewers... All my base are belong to you. U da man.

* * *

Petal

* * *

Sasuke was walking down the street, a barely visible frown on his face as his thoughts again wandered to his brother and a certain pink-haired woman.

He had arrived in Konoha a few days ago with the help of Sakura's clone. Still paralyzed by that underhanded chakra punch of Sakura's, he'd been brought to the hospital to receive treatment. When it turned out the damage wasn't anywhere near as bad as he thought, his rage reached such levels that it had to be handled by jounins until he achieved a better understanding of the situation. He'd found out the hard way that Sakura had indeed grown stronger than the annoying girl from their genin days. Even on their mission to kill Orochimaru, Sasuke had firmly believed that the man's death was brought about by pure luck on Sakura's part. Beginner's luck.

_That is, unless Itachi himself was the one who dealt the killing blow. _But somehow he doubted that.

His view of Sakura had changed, however, after seeing her fight Itachi on her own. In some unexplainable way, using some underhanded trick he hadn't been able to see becuase his Sharingan had been rendered useless, she'd left his brother unconscious. It was so absurd he'd pondered whether that unconsious form could have been an illusion or a clone, but even if that were the case, Sakura's fighting skills remained impressive. What he couldn't understand, even after she'd tried explaining, was that she'd attacked him, Sasuke. They were supposed to be teammates. He'd wanted to fight Itachi so badly. No one should keep his revenge from him like that.

He had questions for her that needed answers. After her return to Konoha, she'd gone straight to the hospital and the Hokage hadn't allowed any guests. But now she'd left the hospital and was at home, so he was going to pay her a visit.

As he got to her door he hesitated only a second before knocking.

"Hold on," he heard her voice say. "Just give me a minute!"

But Sasuke didn't wait; he opened the door and stepped inside slowly, but with determination. Inside, Sakura turned around in surprise, her eyes wide and her arms full. She looked slightly uncomfortable, but he supposed that was to be expected.

"Um... Hi, Sasuke-kun," she said nervously, flashing him half a smile. She was holding some clothes in her arms, partially covered by some old wrapping-paper. Fidgeting uselessly, she didn't seem to know what to do first – leave what she was holding somewhere, or address him first.

"Hello, Sakura. Sorry for barging in," he said, the last few words leaning more towards a mechanical courtesy than an honest apology. "What is that?" Narrowing his eyes in interest, he watched the things she held. At least she didn't cower, or try to hide it.

"Um... It's a dress that Ino bought for me as a welcome-home gift," she muttered, unable to look into his eyes. "And, um, some new underwear..."

A very weird silence ensued.

"I see," Sasuke replied, face stoic, not betraying as much as a shred of the enormous embarrasment he really felt. "Anyway, I came to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind," he started. Sakura tightened her arms around the wrapped clothes she held – the contents of which he was trying not to think about – looking at him with something akin to suspicion.

"First, is Itachi dead or alive?" Sasuke asked quickly. "And why?" Sakura's eyes flickered between his two black ones, and she suddenly looked a little ashamed.

"He- When I went to check if he was still unconscious, he disappeared before I could even get close..." she said, voice quiet. "His unconcious body was probably a clone or an illusion." She looked like she was embarrassed – guilty that she'd let such a thing happen.

Sasuke was silent for a long moment, searching her eyes with his black ones, not letting her escape his scrutiny.

"I see. I suppose I can believe that," he said, looking down at her. "Knocking out the real deal using that sort of method is impossible, I guess," he said, making Sakura frown inwardly in anger. On the outside, however, she flashed a tiny, apologetic smile.

"In any case," he said, determined. "If the one you attacked was a clone and the actual Itachi was watching you from somewhere, how come he didn't attack you? Or me, for that matter?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm not sure... When it comes to his thoughts, I know as much as you – nothing," she said, seeming honest enough. "Perhaps he found it too troublesome to interfere in our battle, so he sent his clone to gather information instead." She didn't look certain, but the same counted for him, so he couldn't judge her by it.

"I suppose no one can know what he is thinking and what his ambitions are," he muttered, more annoyed than his words let on. Sakura readied herself for yet another question, not wanting to be taken off guard.

"The final question..." And now his eyes were piercing hers, "Why did you send me away? I wanted that revenge. I could have fought him and avenged my family, and you stopped me." His voice was low and steady, tinged with suppressed anger as he eyed her with a cold gaze she didn't like at all. Knitting her eyebrows, Sakura gathered her focus so she wouldn't blurt out anything wrong. She had already prepared answers for the questions her friends would no doubt ask her, but it was still hard.

_Here we go..._

"I sent you back to Konoha because I've experienced the powers of Uchiha Itachi. Not just his Sharingan and the Tsukuyomi of his Mangekyo, but his skills within ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu far exceed that of any of us." Her eyes were serious. As were his, though he hadn't been able to keep them from widening when she'd mentioned the Tsukuyomi illusion. She'd experienced it? "Itachi is still stronger than you, Sasuke-kun. Not by leaps and bounds, but enough for him to have been able to kill you, had the two of you fought seriously. I didn't want that to happen. You have an other goal on your mind, right? Why not focus on that first?" she said, her voice turning softer towards the end. When he said nothing, she gave him a careful smile.

It was wasted on him, however.

"But with the two of us, we could have won," he said. Sakura's face darkened.

"No. As I said earlier, the real Itachi may not even have been present himself, in the fight. And although our combined strength may exceed his if the two of us cooperate, he's in a completely different league when it comes to actual fighting experience," she said, frowning now. Still holding the clothes with one arm, she poked him in the chest, surprising him. "Besides, I clearly remember you telling me to stay clear of your fight. You claimed I'd get in your way. You thought I was still the weak Sakura from our school days." Sasuke frowned in annoyance while looking at her, searching her emerald orbs for any secret she might have hidden there.

_I bet he'll give me an angry reply, _thought Sakura, at which Inner Sakura waved her fist as a thousand veins popped all over her forehead.  
_**  
**_"Sorry."

She stared.

"Even if the Itachi you fought may have been a clone or an illusion, you fought well. I didn't mean to underestimate you," he muttered, averting his eyes for a brief moment. "And I'd be a fool not to train after what happened. I've already decided to polish my fighting abilities before I challenge that man again." His words were quiet and filled with frustration, but he seemed honest.

_Did I just hear that? _Out of all the words she'd expected to hear, 'sorry' was the last. Still in shock, she couldn't help her dumbfounded expression.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"What do you mean, _what?_" he demanded, thoroughly annoyed. "What's up with you?"

"I'm... I'm fine, I'm just a little tired," she rushed, his 'sorry' still ricocheting through her mind. It felt funny, not to hear her heart thumping even at such an utterance from him. Only a short time ago, she might have fainted if she heard him speak the same word.

"Hn," Sasuke said as he turned around and walked out. "Then, I'll get going," he said nonchalantly, waving a hand over his shoulder as he did.

_Still _not over the surprise of his apology, she ran to the door and closed it quietly behind him. The clothes she'd been holding, covered in wrapping-paper, fell to the floor and revealed, among other things, black fabric with a red cloud on it. Sakura sighed in relief. She muttered a 'thank goodness' to no one in particular that Sasuke hadn't noticed it, then picked up the Akatsuki robe and walked to her room with it. There, she placed it in her closet next to the Akatsuki straw hat. She made sure they were well hidden behind her other clothes.

After getting back to Konoha, she had stayed at the hospital for some checks. Tsunade had ordered it, despite Sakura insisting she was fine. Upon getting back to her house after finally escaping the clutches of hugging friends and the bustling activity in the hospital, Sakura had found two brown packages with a note scribbled on top. The packages had awaited her inside, right behind her door. First she had opened the package containing the hat and put it in her closet. In the package was her ANBU mask, too – she'd lost it in Akatsuki's mountain hideout in her brief fight against Deidara, along with the Akatsuki cloak given her by Itachi and Kisame. She had been grateful beyond compare to get them back; content to have something that reminded her of Itachi. The fact that she'd received them at all meant that the feelings between them weren't one-sided. But she had no idea when or how the packages had made it into her apartment, nor if the deliverer was nearby.

Sasuke's timing was extraordinary, for him to have knocked at her door in that particular moment. Sakura gave a loud sigh, remembering her half-opened package. That had been too close. She glanced at the note on top, which she hadn't read yet.

_Now that it has come to this, I will ask of you to never disclose any information about me. Whether it is about my hideout, details of my eyes or our connection, do not tell anyone, and do try to offer a credible excuse if you are asked. Should you choose to ignore my words, I may let it slip that you cooperated with me just a little too easily. Also, I advise you to burn this message once you have read it._

Sakura's mouth twitched. What was with this strictly-business threat of a letter? Besides, why burn it if she could hide it somewhere safe? This was the most personal thing he had given her so far._  
__  
Also, if I am ever in need of medical help, I trust you to be of use again. By the way, since I am guessing you don't intend to burn this after all, at least seal it and hide it._

Blushing furiously, Sakura held the letter away from her in surprise. He already knew her that well? She could seal the letter, that was no problem. Itachi had been bold, though, because although he hadn't left his name on the bottom, he'd signed the letter with a small fan – the symbol of the Uchiha Clan. After folding the paper, she sealed it in a scroll – and after some hesitation, she did the same with the robe and the straw hat. She hid the scrolls safely back into her closet, feeling happier, yet at the same time more frustrated than before.

_Does Itachi feel something for me? _She liked to believe so. Then again, if he only viewed her as his medic... Frowning wearily, Sakura decided to get some fresh air. It would do her good.

Her walk turned a little more tiring than she'd hoped for, however, as she met a bunch of her friends along the way. Before she knew it, she was being hauled along to every shop and stall in Konoha. Some of her friends, including Ino, Hinata and Tenten, bought her tons of gifts and helped her buy clothes, which left her carrying bags of all sizes and colors. In the end Sakura excused herself and said he had to go see Tsunade.

"But, Sakura!" Ino exclaimed, on hand on her hip, the other holding a number of shopping bags. "You've already talked to the Hokage, right? When you first got back!" She was sulking.

"Eh... I'm sorry, but I have to!" Sakura replied. After some minutes of talking and saying goodbye, they let her go.

First she made her way back home and kicked the door open. Once inside, she went to her bedroom and dropped all the bags to the floor, standing there for a minute, grieving over money lost. Giving a loud sigh, she walked back into the hall, pleased that she was no longer camouflaged as a walking mountain of shopping bags. She came to a halt, however, as something seemed off. Standing in the open door, she looked outside with narrowed eyes. It felt as though she was being watched. Not a hostile feeling, but still...

Narrowing her eyes further in suspicion, Sakura shut the door.

* * *

Once evening came around, Sakura went to some of the outer training grounds of Konoha.

The feeling of having someone watch her had yet to disappear, and it was starting to thoroughly annoy her. Was it a suspicious Sasuke? A shop-crazed Ino? Pervy Ero-Sennin? A hug-starved Naruto? She couldn't detect any chakras nearby, but she felt a presence nonetheless. Whether it was a friend or an enemy was hard to tell, but there wasn't any killing intent. She had even considered telling the person to come out, but had chosen not to. She'd wondered if it was Itachi at first, but this was the middle of Konoha, and if one avenger of a little brother didn't notice his presence, there were plenty of other jounins who would. Ah, speaking of Sasuke, he still underestimated her, didn't he. And what was with that shopping earlier? Just because she'd been gone on a long training journey, followed closely by a trip forced upon her by Hoshigaki and Uchiha, that didn't mean her money had magically accumulated until it was endless. And complaining about this was stupid, since she could've just told her friends that in the first place. Another reason she was out here was that she felt she really wouldn't be able to fall asleep even if she tried, despite being tired. All of that was enough to make anyone annoyed.

Fuming, Sakura scowled around her for somewhere fitting to let go of some steam.

_If I have any energy left, that is.  
_  
If she spent all of her chakra right now, she'd be able to fall asleep earlier, at least. Then she'd be more rested tomorrow. It was a nice idea. It was still stupid of her to be this worked up, though. Feeling that she was at the limit of her self-control, she stomped with chakra-loaded, ground-smashing feet towards a small mountain – just a little smaller than the mountain that had the Hokage-faces on it. Concentrating, she gathered chakra in her arms and fists until they shone with the energy.

But seriously, just what did it take for that Sasuke to see that she'd grown stronger?

In the middle of it all, she could still sense the presence, which only served to further propel her vexation and chakra force.

A safe distance away, the oldest Uchiha observed her with interest, wondering what else she was capable of than he had seen thus far. He was standing in the crown of a tree, his chakra completely masked as he watched the infuriated Sakura with some amusement.

"Shaaa!" she shouted all of a sudden, furious. "_Who's _weak?!" Holding back a quiet laugh, Itachi activated his Sharingan and focused on Sakura as she stomped forward, her arms and legs so full of chakra that flares of light flashed around them. Just what was she capable of if she held nothing back? He had seen her fight quite a few times, but she was always holding back her physical strength – he'd been able to tell that much. And seeing as she was aiming for a mountain now, things could get interesting.

Once close enough, Sakura crashed both fists in the mountain and released all her chakra in a perfect wave through her arms. Upon impact, an ear-blasting roll of a blast shook the ground as cracks of black gorges appeared in front of her, spreading from her fists. Boulders started rolling and land rose and fell, producing smoke that slowly formed a pillar growing into the darkening sky. Rain of stones and rocks and old roots fell around her, a few even hitting her and making her even angrier.

"_Shannaro!_" she shouted, furiously punching the wall again, both fists digging deeper into the mountain wall, which all but exploded in front of her, leaving her hidden in dust and smoke. The noise of what Itachi guessed was chakra fists and feet against stone didn't cease even then. He could hear her punch and kick and shout her steam out, which only resulted in more smoke. He could only see her chakra with the help of his Sharingan. Her body and the damage she'd dealt to her surroundings were left out of view until her rampage ended.

As the weak wind carried away the smoke afterwards, the mess left behind came into view. Where the mountain had stood moments before, only sharp, broken boulders were left behind, scattered in all directions. In fact, he was certain the ground where the mountain had been was now lower than the ground around it. Itachi had no doubt that both the smoke and the tremble of the ground had been registered by people all over Konoha. When he looked back at Sakura, she was leaning on her knees, breathing heavily, but not fast. Straightening and turning around, she almost fell over, but managed to steady herself. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

And although she had now successfully ridden herself of all her chakra, she let go a satisfied smile as she toppled backwards and fell towards the dusty ground.

After one glance in the direction of the village, Itachi closed the distance between them in a single step, reaching her and catching her before she landed. At that her eyes flew open and she was instantly alert. Even after seeing it was him, her eyes didn't stop widening – on the contrary, she was so flustered he couldn't withhold a smirk. As she mumbled incoherently in search of words, he deactivated his Sharingan and stared her square in the eyes, his smirk fading, but his amusement remaining in his dark orbs. It effectively silenced her.

What did she think he was going to do?

"What-"

Before she could finish, he bolted into the shadows of the trees, making her give a cry of surprise as she grabbed hold of the front of his Akatsuki robe. Hiding his own chakra as best as he could, he made for Konoha without speaking a single word. Her grip on his cloak tightened as he jumped from tree to tree, hiding from the eyes of others. She grew nervous – if he went in that direction, he could get spotted, couldn't he? And just as he jumped out of the forest, they were surrounded by a puff of smoke as he used a transformation jutsu. When Sakura opened her eyes she half expected him to look like somebody else, but the only thing that was different from before was that he wasn't wearing his cloak, but his usual sweatshirt, with elbow-length arms and a mesh around the top hem.

With speed that only an S-rank criminal or a high-level jounin could muster, he zoomed through the entire village, stopping only when he made it to her apartment. No one spotted them – if anything, all they'd ever notice was Sakura's chakra hurtling by at an unusually high pace. In front of her front door, Itachi carefully let her down. Her grip on his shirt didn't loosen, however, earning her a scrutinizing stare. When she looked up, she managed a smile – a small, lopsided one, but still a whole-hearted one. Then her hands slid off him as her expression slowly turned into one of wonder.

Itachi glanced sideways at the sound of some passers-by, then sent her an unreadable look as he turned to leave.

But then she stepped forward and hugged him from behind, the words she spoke next muffled as her face was buried in his back.

"If I'm allowed to trouble you like this, even if it's just every once in a while," she spoke, hesitating before continuing, "Then let me treat you to dango sometime."

He let out a soft breath of a laugh.

"If it's going to be like that," he replied, sounding almost haughty – but only almost. "At least let me pay." She could hear the smirk in his voice.

And then he was gone. Her smile didn't disappear, though.

_Because they'd meet again, all right._

* * *

The End


End file.
